More than half of cot deaths occur when babies sleep with parent
Cot deaths in this country have fallen to 0.4 per 1,000 compared to an average of 30 per year in the 1980s, according to the National Sudden Infant Death Register.
However, experts are now advising parents to avoid sleeping with their baby if they have taken drugs, drank or are a smoker, so these deaths can be reduced even further.
They have warned that while some parents are aware of the dangers of taking a newborn into bed, new research shows that falling asleep on an armchair with a baby can be 25 times more dangerous. It’s believed that alcohol and drugs can impair parents’ ability to wake up, while it is feared that smoking during pregnancy can make the newborn more vulnerable.
A team of researchers at Bristol and Warwick universities, studied all unexpected infant deaths – aged from birth to two years old – in the south-west of England from January 2003 to December 2006.
To investigate a possible link between cot death and socio-economic deprivation, they compared a randomly selected control group from these figures with a particular cohort whose mothers were young, socially deprived and who smoked. Parents were interviewed shortly after the death and information was collated on alcohol and drug use.
Much of the co-sleeping risk may be explained by the combination of parental alcohol or drug use prior to co-sleeping. Of those who suffered cot deaths, 31% had been indulging in such behaviour compared to 3% of the control group. And while many mothers think it is safer to sit on a sofa rather than sleep in bed, 17% had fallen asleep with their child on a sofa.
A fifth of cot death infants were found with a pillow and a quarter were swaddled, suggesting potentially new risk factors emerging.
The authors pointed out that it was still difficult to say that co-sleeping should be stopped as its is the parental habits of alcohol, smoking and drug taking that increase the risk significantly.
The safest place for an infant to sleep is in a cot beside the parental bed in the first six months of life, the study published on bmj.com said.
A spokeswoman for the Sudden Infant Death Register in Ireland said the issue of co-sleeping has to be approached with caution as many breastfeeding parents sleep with their infants and they don’t want to discourage breastfeeding. “However, if you are a smoker, even if you don’t smoke in bed, have drank alcohol or taken drugs, you should not fall asleep with your child.”
