Sleeping with your baby: the world's top scientists speak out - an Exclusive Mothering Special Report

No one would suggest that because sleeping in a crib can be hazardous under certain conditions, no baby should sleep be in a crib. By analogy, therefore, it is equally illogical to suggest that because under certain circumstances bedsharing can be hazardous, parents should not bedshare with their babies. Given the near universality of the practice of bedsharing at some stage, it is far more logical to identify the conditions under which bedsharing is hazardous and to give parents information on how to avoid them.

**********

IN SEPTEMBER 1999 AND MAY 2002, THE US CONSUMER Product Safety Commission (CPSC) made pronouncements that seriously put into question the safety of sleeping with a baby in an adult bed. The first pronouncement specifically cautioned against cosleeping, while the second described the hidden hazards in adult beds. Both statements were based on retrospective, subjective analyses of death certificates and did not refer to any other scientific evidence. Almost at once, parents spoke more fearfully about the family bed, and the assumption that it was unsafe began to seep into our culture.

The family bed has often been questioned in recent times, but its use is quite common, especially among breastfeeding mothers. Prior to 1999, the family bed was about choice. Some families chose it; others did not. Now, however, with its safety questioned, it has become not a social or lifestyle issue, but a medical and legal one.

Since May, I have become alarmed by how many people accept the CPSC mantra as truth. They do so unthinkingly, believing naively that they are getting the whole story. I began to have conversations with internationally renowned sleep researcher Jim McKenna about what we could do about this misinformation. I was concerned about the parents I knew who were confused and about the marketers who were using this confusion to material advantage. Jim talked of hospitals that were changing their policies, based on the belief that bedsharing is unsafe.

Jim and I lamented the fact that the CPSC had not chosen to present evidence-based recommendations cognizant of social realities. He knew of other countries that had already faced these challenges successfully. There were models, and there was much more evidence than was being presented to the American public. Jim suggested we publish a special issue of Mothering devoted to the scientific evidence regarding infant sleep. He contacted many of the world's foremost experts in this area, researchers in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Notre Dame, and other US universities. They worked on a tight deadline, contributing original research papers geared to a lay audience.

While the family bed is an issue Mothering has covered for many years, that coverage has been mostly personal. Now it is time to publish the science; in fact, it is our responsibility to do so. I'm quite certain that you will find it presented nowhere else in such an accessible way. You will be as surprised as I was to discover that the evidence says just the opposite of the CPSC recommendation. Not only is it safe to sleep with your baby, it is unsafe not to. Research shows that the majority of parents sleep safely with their babies at some time during the night, and that a baby is safest when sleeping in close proximity to mom.

We hope these unique and historic articles will be of service to you as you make your own decisions as parents. We don't want you to make them without the whole story. Here it is.

--Peggy O'Mara

On May 3, 2002, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association (JPMA), announced the first stage of a campaign aimed at discouraging parents from ever leaving infants alone to sleep on adult beds (a good thing) and further, to alert parents to what the group considers to be the "hidden dangers" of adult beds. In the process of delineating these hidden hazards, rather than giving parents information about how to eliminate them, the CPSC implies that they can only be eliminated if babies sleep in cribs. The May 3 press release avoided saying "Never sleep with baby" (a tactical mistake the CPSC made two years earlier); nevertheless, the overall message communicated to parents and health institutions was that all forms of cosleeping should be discouraged.

Neither in the press conferences nor in any interviews or public presentations was it stressed that the rights of parents to choose to cosleep should be protected or that, when done safely, cosleeping can be an appropriate and healthy choice. Moreover, the CPSC continues to provide the public with a biased and selective interpretation of the inherent dangers associated with infants sleeping with their mothers and fathers. The CPSC's interpretation is not supported by international scientific data, and the commission appears not to be interested in any contrary views or evidence.

BY REFUSING TO POINT OUT THAT COSLEEPING, AND cosleeping in the form of bedsharing, can be practiced either safely or unsafely, and that sleeping next to a baby is not inherently dangerous, especially for a breastfeeding, sober mother, the CPSC misses opportunities to educate millions of parents about how to cosleep safely. Its actions suggest instead that parents are neither educable nor intelligent enough to make their own decisions about how, or whether, to cosleep. Hence, the current campaign supports and builds on the approach taken by former CPSC chairwoman Ann Brown two years ago when she said, "Don't sleep with your baby or put your baby down to sleep in an adult bed. The only safe place for babies to sleep is in a crib that meets current safety standards and has a firm, tight-fitting mattress."

This special issue of Mothering is committed to bringing a full, critical, scientific perspective on the issue of sleeping arrangements from some of the world's leading scientists on the subject. We believe that a very different discourse is needed, one that neither condemns cosleeping or bedsharing, nor condemns crib sleeping or what most parents end up practicing, a mixed strategy combining cosleeping and solitary crib sleeping.

Our approach, first and foremost, acknowledges and respects the unique needs of different infants, as well as the unique needs, goals, and philosophies of different families. We argue against the validity of the conclusions drawn from the biased data used by the CPSC and lament the distorted interpretation and public misuse of those data. We challenge the accuracy of the CPSC reports, the particular inferences drawn, and the legitimacy of the sample from which universal principles about the outcomes of cosleeping and bedsharing were drawn; it is well known that the sample represents, for the most part, babies cosleeping in dangerous ways, in dangerous places (couches, sofas), and alongside inappropriate sleeping partners (other children or desensitized parents).

The stand taken by the CPSC presents an image to the public of a mother's body--particularly a breastfeeding mother's body--as being no more responsive to her infant in bed than the inert mattress on which she sleeps. The assumption that a mother's body is little more than a lethal wooden rolling pin, out of her own control or that of her infant, is itself immoral. It is one thing to present "hidden dangers"; it is altogether a very different matter, indeed a cultural perversion, to suggest that it is the mother herself who is the "hidden danger."

However well-meaning, the organizers of this campaign have chosen to distort, dismiss, and/or ignore significant aspects of the mother-infant relationship, which derives its biological legitiztributions that can be provided by close physical contact in the form of cosleeping with breastfeeding. Furthermore, while it is true that adult beds were not designed for infants, technically, neither were cribs!

One irrefutable scientific fact conveniently ignored by the CPSC and the JPMA is this: The only true object or entity around which the human infant was designed to sleep is the mother's body. Yes, it is true that it can be dangerous for infants to sleep alone, whether on beds or in cribs; but place a committed, breastfeeding mother nearby or alongside, and the infant's survival chances are actually increased. This is the difference that the CPSC and the JPMA fail to articulate. We are sure that the following articles will provide you with a great deal of intellectual and practical armament to challenge this offensive attack on parental and infant rights.

--James J. McKenna

Professor of Infant Health Developmental Physiology, University of Bristol, UK

COPYRIGHT 2002 Mothering Magazine
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group