The tussle between two firms says a lot about the difficulty of getting your baby to sleep safely

‘Your baby might sleep happily on its back. But many don’t. Online, it’s a culture war between the official health advice and ideological cosleepers.’ Photograph: Juice Images/Alamy

The first night we brought my son home from the hospital to our empty flat, we sat up far longer than needed, unmoored by a new, overwhelming responsibility to keep him alive. That some babies stop breathing in their sleep, and scientists still don’t really know why, terrified me when I’d just been primally rewired towards his survival. All you can do, you are told, is try to minimise risk.

And so you try to commit the guidelines to memory. They say that for the first six months (adjusted for prematurity), the baby should sleep in the same room as you. And for the first 12 months the baby should be placed on its back in their own clear, flat, firm separate sleep space (eg a cot or moses basket). Babies should nevert get too hot, and they should be in a smoke-free environment.