And one more thing I forgot to add, I think one of the problems with bed-sharing though is not necessarily sleeping next to an infant, it's our modern soft beds that are high off the floor. In many countries, mats are firmer and usually on the ground. Parents don't have to worry about babies rolling out of bed. In countries such as Japan and HongKong, almost all babies sleep with their mothers on mats on the floor, and they have one of the lowest rate of SIDS in the world. If co-sleeping is a risk factor for SIDS, why do countries who have more co-sleeping have less SIDS than we do? 

Here's an article by Dr. James McKenna:

http://www.naturalchild.org/james_mckenna/cosleeping_world.html


I also found this interesting article, Bedsharing and Co-Sleeping: Research Overview

http://evolutionaryparenting.com/bed-sharing-and-co-sleeping-research-overview/


"Some authorities suggest parent-baby bedsharing is a questionable practice that should be abandoned by parents and discouraged by health professionals due to concerns regarding risk of SIDS and/or accidental death [47][48][49]. Such recommendations acknowledge little or no value in mother–infant sleep contact. This view is primarily based on epidemiological studies that calculate the likelihood of SIDS or accidental infant deaths, based on the characteristics of babies who died compared with matched controls in large population-based studies. Babies sleeping on their front, parental smoking, poverty, and young maternal age are all well-known factors that are associated with an increased risk of unexpected infant death [50]. However, estimates of the relative risk of SIDS in the context of bed-sharing vary widely. Although McKenna [51] hypothesised a protective effect of bedsharing on SIDS-risk based on an evolutionary perspective, epidemiological
 studies have only found a protective effect for room-sharing (co-sleeping).  Assessments of the impact of bed-sharing on SIDS-risk in the UK range from no increased risk to babies of non-smoking parents to a 12-fold increase for infants sharing a sofa for sleep with a parent who smokes [52]. The picture is obscured because studies from different countries use different criteria to define bedsharing [53][54][55][56] and have produced a confusing array of statistics that cannot easily be compared [57][58]."


It seems as though, really more research needs to be done before any relationship with SIDS and co-sleeping can be determined at this point. We shouldn't be saying it causes or prevents it, because it hasn't been established, except in the cases in which known co-morbidities are present such as smoking. 

Tricia Shamblin, RN, IBCLC

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