Fiona Coombes shared this: <<Scragg et al Bed sharing, smoking, and alcohol in the sudden infant death syndrome. British Medical Journal 1993;307:1312-1318. This was part of the large New Zealand Cot Death Study Group research - the same group who found significant protective relationships between breastfeeding and SIDS, and prone sleep position. In this study, the main risk seemed to be for infants who bed shared and who had mothers who smoked. The authors state that for infants of non-smoking mothers, the results were inconsistent with an increased relative risk for usual bed sharing in the last two weeks (before death) but not for bed sharing in the last sleep !!>> In actual fact the only infants at risk were of smoking Maori mothers,though in NZ this could not be highlighted for political reasons. Being a displaced First Nation people, Maori are often poor and live in conditions that are independent risk factors for SIDS; tobacco and alcohol abuse are serious health issues. A very similar poor community which breastfeeds, the Polynesians, have a much lower SIDS rate. Later NZ studies showed co-sleeping to be protective vs, SIDS in communities not poor and not chemically addicted. But the damage was done. Even in this study the inconsistent results should have flagged the need for greater analysis before wide publicity of what has been very damaging information. I was told that in Canterbury, an area of predominantly Anglo stock, there was a hugely diferent result and co-sleeping was protective,