Suzanne:  20 babies have died since 1981 while co-sleeping.  Let me see
now:  the incidence of SIDS has been around 1-2/1,000 (it used to be
higher), so multiplying that rate by the population and over a 15 year
period, it's likely that the number of SIDS deaths since 1981 have been
staggeringly higher than 20.  Of all these SIDS deaths, I think it is
fair to say that the vast majority occurred while baby slept in own crib
(not to be glib, but it's called crib/cot death for a reason).  Add to
that the deaths of babies who died from non-SIDS deaths while in their
cribs, and that puts a somewhat different perspective on the Reader's
Digest article.
I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of these kinds of
occurrences, and of course co-sleeping should be accompanied by
reasonable precautions such as parents not being drunk/drugged into a
stupor(equally important even if baby sleeps in crib), properly fitted
bedsheets, etc.  But unless we acknowledge
that sleeping alone is significantly riskier, we are perpetuating an
unfortunate misconception.
Letters to Reader's Digest, anyone? Alicia.  [log in to unmask]