Hello everyone!
For our first Blog post Im going to touch on a bit of a taboo topic! Bed Sharing with our babies. Almost all of us has done it at some point but we are made to feel so scared by health professionals, family and friends that we often lie about it. The rest of us who have NEVER shared our bed with our baby often fall asleep with them on our chest in our rocking chairs or on the couch! Both of which are actually more dangerous than sleeping on a safe sleep space with a parent. We have all been there, when we are super tired with a baby who isn’t any where near as tired as we are, we are sitting feeding and we either wake up as we feel our baby falling out of our arms or as they drop onto our laps. This could be dangerous if they then fall onto the floor or get caught between your leg and the chair/couch!
So rather than posting here about how dangerous sleeping with our babies is, we are going to give you some links to show how to make your sleep space as safe as you can to help reduce your babies likely hood of having SIDS. Lets begin by refreshing everyone with the basic safe sleep guidelines!
How to Sleep your Baby Safely:
- Sleep baby on the back from birth, not on the tummy or side
- Sleep baby with head and face uncovered
- Keep baby smoke free before birth and after
- Provide a safe sleeping environment night and day
- Sleep baby in their own safe sleeping place in the same room as an adult caregiverfor the first six to twelve months
- Breastfeed baby
So apart from number 5 all of the other dot points above can be transferred to safe bed sharing. Below we have attached 3 documents showing how parents can make their beds a safe sleeping environment!
As adults and parents we have to make decisions for our children all of the time… If you choose to share a sleep space with your baby it is absolutely your choice! But wouldn’t it be nice to know you are doing it as safely as you can! Stop “hiding in the closet” and educate yourself.
Guidelines on how to sleep safely with your baby:-
http://www.sidsandkids.org/wp-content/uploads/SIDS_SafeSleeping_A4_IS_SleepingWithABabyLR1web_b.pdf
http://www.thesleepstore.co.nz/newborn-sleep/safe-sleep-information/co-sleeping-safely
http://www.thenaturalparent.co.nz/articles/co-sleeping-dos-and-donts.php
PLEASE NOTE: We are not at all suggesting that bed sharing will work for everyone or should be done by all families! But when done safely can be a option for some families! Happy Reading!
Image courtesy of ~Dionna @ CodeNameMama.com
