It would appear that sharing your bed with baby can be good for you after all.Chances are that you're reading this after after spending yet another night with your baby or even child asleep in your bed. Many of us apparently keep it a secret as we feel we shouldn't sleep with our babies. Well, you can rest assured t hat you no longer have to hide your secret. You will probably get told off by your health visitor or other members of officialdom but it seems that bed-sharing is not the parenting crime it was once seen to be.
In 1991, research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Sids) was carried out in New Zealand, where the Maori community co-slept. The researchers found they had a high rate of Sids. Obviously this was then linked. But only once parents across the world had been terrified by the news, was it discovered that the Maori use of alcohol and tobacco was more than likely the cause. NHS guidelines actually reaffirm this by saying that co-sleeping is not a problem by itself; only if it is combined with cigarettes, drugs or alcohol.
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