Leading experts are calling for parents to be given safety advice about co-sleeping with their babies after research revealed that most do it at some point. A poll of 3,402 new parents for the charity Lullaby Trust, which raises awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), found nine in 10 parents have slept alongside their baby, but only four in 10 have been advised by a health professional how to reduce the risk of cot death.
More than 40% of parents admitted they had fallen asleep with their baby in a potentially dangerous way, such as on a sofa or in an armchair, which can increase the risk of SIDS by up to 50 times. It comes as a new report from academics including from the University of Oxford found more needed to be done to raise awareness of safe sleeping practices.
It called for open conversations between parents and professionals, and looked in particular at how these messages can be conveyed to deprived communities. Data suggests 42% of sudden infant deaths occur in deprived neighbourhoods, compared with 8% in the least deprived.
