CuriousG wrote: I also read the actual article in the newspaper last night which highlighted exactly what these mothers found when they awoke.

I didn't read the article but DH said it also told of the sleeping practices of some of the parents for instance one of the mothers slept in a single bed with her 6wk old twins.

weegee wrote: In the end the main reason we didn't co-sleep was that my husband couldn't sleep with our noisy bubba in the same room, let alone the same bed!

My husband took to sleeping on the couch (although that was mostly because a. he was a smoker and b. he started taking sleeping pills so it was unsafe to have him in bed with her).

I'm glad they changed the headline.

lilfatty wrote: And I was wondering how Im going to fit womble in .. DH might have to sleep on the floor!

Master 7 gets a bed set up on the floor and Master 2 has a 3 sided cot pushed up against their bed.  Master 2 & 7 also have their own beds in their own room.

CuriousG wrote: My gripe is that in that article is says that of 54 infants, 24 died while sharing an adult bed. So, 30 died in their own cot? To me, that means it may actually be safer to share beds.

LOL, I hadn't read it that thoroughly - good point!

CuriousG wrote: I am all for co sleeping, we have done it from pretty much day dot as she was so hard to settle and still do. The only reason we are about to stop it is that she is getting too big and it seems that DH and I have our "sides" and DD has her "half".

PMSL, same thing happens in our house when Michaela decides to come into bed with us.  She takes over my 1/2 and DH and I are restricted to his half.  Could be worse though, my sis and her husband often share their bed with 3 sons (7yo, 2yo and 1yo). 

That's so sad.

I do think the reporter (and possibly the coroner) is obviously against co-sleeping though as the article actually says not all the babies co-slept (some were sleeping on pillows - which we all know is dangerous) but the headline tells a different story.

I'm actually all for co-sleeping.  I wasn't always but my attitude changed when I had a baby that would only sleep for 45 mins day or night unless she was in my arms (having said that I'd prefer not to share my bed with anyone so this baby will start out in a basinette just as Michaela did and I hope it likes it in there).

Many people believe that co-sleeping can actually reduce the occurence of sids and co-sleeping is very common in non-western cultures but there are huge differences in the practice and also in the bedding used in western countries and I think the problem is that many westerners don't follow safe co-sleeping practices such as:

Basically we're given all these rules in AN classes about how cots should be set up to be safe and so if you choose to co-sleep with your child your bed should be set up in the same way (if that makes sense).

Those that intend to co-sleep might want to check out sites like this one: http://www.parenthood.com/article-topics/safe_co_sleeping_with_your_baby.html on safe co-sleeping.