2009-01-24

Cosleeping can be very safe

Once a friend living in USA after knowing we cosleep with our baby (sleeping next to DW who sleeps next to me) warned us about the danger of co-sleeping (mother rolling over baby). This was how I replied:

Don't worry:

1. Throughout human history, co-sleeping has been practised by countless cultures;

2 . I co-slept with my mom until teenage age;

3. I trust the sensitivity of breastfeeding mothers;

4. if safety guidelines (about conditions and positionings of parents; placements of pillows and blankets; types of beds; etc.) are observed there is no problem at all;

5. those "rolling adults" are usually men, very fat, drunken, drug-takers or smokers;

6. the cases of SIDs of babies in cribs far exceed those in parents' beds;

7. the so-called "danger" of co-sleeping is constructed by (male) pediatricians and crib companies out of control and profit motives.

Having said this, we will still be very careful. Thanks!


I don't know how many parents cosleep with their children in my city, but it must be practised by many - esp the lower class families. This city is highly densely populated, and for many lower-class families living in private rental flats their spaces are extremely small. There, it is not unusual to find the members of a 3-generation family (as many as 9 persons from what I read) sleeping very tightly together in two bunk beds (the ones who can't fit in sleep on the floor!).

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