have raw cake and eat it
Co-sleeping gets a fairly bad press here in the UK and is generally not recommended by midwives and doctors and government publicity. However, in my experience most parents have done it at least once, some people occasionally and others regularly and some like me co-sleep every night. When I was pregnant with my first son, being the cautious person I am, I was adamant I would not co-sleep as I believed it to be unsafe from all I had read in books and magazines about it.
Three weeks after the birth of my son, desperate for advice about my tiny boy who wanted to be next to me with the boob in his mouth all night, I called La Leche League for help. The very experienced leader suggested co-sleeping and gave me in-depth advice about safety. We tried it that night and I have never looked back. Of course, any decision you make needs to weigh up the risks and benefits and I do not in any way advocate that it is the only way to parent, but for us it has truly worked.
I was later interested to discover that UNICEF and the NCT jointly published a statement in September 2005 saying they do not support blanket recommendations against bed sharing in the early weeks.
The UNICEF/NCT statement says "Parents need to be given clear, accurate information on risk factors so that they can make their own decisions. No one really knows what causes cot death but research shows that there are a few simple precautions that can be taken to help your baby sleep safely."
"There is evidence that mothers who breastfeed and share a bed with their babies are more likely to continue breastfeeding. As not breastfeeding is associated with increased short and long term health risks, we are worried that telling women not to co-sleep may reduce the duration of breastfeeding."
You can read the full text here
CO-SLEEPING
A Unicef leaflet with information on the benefits and risks of bed sharing, designed to help parents make informed decisions about safely sharing a bed with their babies.
If you prefer to have your baby in a cot but close to you, a good compromise might be a bedside cot or arms reach co-sleeper which fits securely against the parents' own bed on the same level, so parents can be very close to their baby while s/he remains in his/her own bed covered by his/her own bedclothes.
Useful reading
Three in a Bed by Deborah Jackson
Nighttime Parenting by William Sears
