Bed-sharing by accident

Our new book, Baby Sleep is going off to print as I type, and in the meantime, this year's AAP convention is kicking off in DC.

As we wrote the section on bed-sharing, we really agonized over what stance to take. Bed-sharing can be very dangerous, and babies can and do die when parents roll over on them-- as shown in this horrible story from Wales the other day. A lot of the deaths that in the past had been attributed to SIDS were most likely accidental rollovers while bed-sharing.

On the other hand, bed-sharing is on the rise.
Here's the stat from Widener U in PA:

Ninety-four women were enrolled ... 70 were interviewed at 1 month and 54 at 3 months. At enrollment none of the 94 mothers were planning on sharing their bed with their infant. At 1 month 47% reported sharing their bed with their infant the prior month and 17% at 3 months.

I know we did the right thing by presenting all of the pros and cons of bed-sharing, and explicit safety information. The most dangerous scenario of all is what's going on here: parents who don't plan to, but end up bed-sharing out of exhaustion, without making the bed safe for baby.


ps. "SUIDS" is the new "SIDS" - Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Syndrome.