Going Without a Crib

Many new parents try to save money when having a new baby by getting a used crib. This is a very dangerous practice for several reasons. Older cribs may have been recalled for safety reasons. They may have features that are dangerous to babies and are now no longer used in new crib designs such as decorative cutouts and posts at the corners. Used cribs may have weak spots in their springs or may be missing pieces altogether. They may have toxic lead paint which babies could chew on and ingest. They may also not be up to current safety standards.

What many parents do not know is that there are other reasons why cribs are dangerous and that cosleeping and/or sleep sharing are safer than putting baby in a crib if (and only IF) they are done correctly. There is a very strong movement by crib manufacturers in this country to put out misinformation about the supposed dangers of cosleeping. These negative propagandas are untrue and may have caused the deaths of thousands of babies who could have been saved simply by sharing sleep with their parents.

Cosleeping is the act of sharing a bed with your baby while breastfeeding and under safe conditions. Sleep sharing is sharing a room with your baby, but not necessarily a bed. False reports of babies who have died while cosleeping have included dangerous situtaitons which are actually not considered cosleeping. Cosleeping is NOT putting an infant in a bed with other children, having an infant sleeping with an unrelated adult, or sleeping with a baby on an unsafe surface such as a couch or recliner.

While crib manufacturers fund studies to try to prove the dangers of cosleeping, independant studies show that crib sleeping is not safe and that the rate of SIDS death is much higher in crib sleeping babies. Cosleeping shows a much lower incidence of crib death. The reasons why cosleeping saves babies are numerous. During sleep, a baby's breathing is regulated by its mother's breathing as is the baby's body temperature. When cosleeping and sleep sharing, the baby is close by, so the parents can hear the baby and get to him or her quickly if there is anything wrong. Cosleeping also facilitates breastfeeding as well as a desire to thrive in babies.

Like all other mammals, human babies need to sleep with their mothers. Every one of us is born programmed with a safety feature: fear. Babies cry when left alone because they are literally terrified for their lives. Like all baby animals, being left alone means danger of being harmed by predators and other dangers, so infants have evolved to feel afraid when left by themselves and will cry so that an adult will know that they are alone and will come to help them. The practice of leaving a baby alone in another room in a crib triggers this fear response and babies will cry throughout the night when they wake up from heat, cold, wetness, or hunger. The escalating fear will wake a baby fully making it more difficult to get them back to sleep, and prolonged crying has been shown to produce a stroke-like effect on babies brains.

Cosleeping and sleep sharing are also an excellent way for parents to get more sleep. With a baby sleeping in a crib in another room, the baby will wake then cry until the parents wake up to come and help it. If the baby is formula-fed, this can cause even more problems as the baby must continue to cry while the parent gets up, goes to the kitchen, and prepares a bottle for the baby.

Cosleeping makes things much easier. Cosleeping mothers breastfeed. Neither the mother nor the baby needs to wake fully during night feedings. A hungry baby will usually begin to root for the breast in its sleep and the mother, who is sensitive to the sleeping and feeding patterns of her baby, needs only to lift her shirt so her baby can latch on to the breast. Then the mother and baby can snuggle back into sleep and the baby never needs to cry or feel afraid and no one in the house needs to be awakened. I remember feeling so glad every time someone pitied me as a new mother for not getting any sleep. My baby is nearly a year old now and I have never missed a single moment of sleep. My husband has never gone to work in the morning bleary-eyed from a night of feedings and trying to rock an unhappy baby back down. We get eight to nine hours of sleep a night and I've never been happier.

Cosleeping is NOT for everyone. Before considering whether you should cosleep or share sleep with your baby, you must consider the following. If you are not able to cosleep with your baby, you can still share sleep - place baby in a crib next to your bed or in the same room with you.

You should NOT cosleep with an infant under these conditions:

-other children share the bed
-the bed is not firm (i.e. a feather mattress is used)
-the bed is pushed up against a wall where baby could get stuck between the wall and the bed
-between two parents (baby should sleep between the mother and a secure siderail
-on a couch, chair, recliner, folded futon, or inflatable mattress
-if either parent smokes, drinks, does recreational drugs, or is on medication
-if the mother smoked during her pregnancy
-if the baby is formula fed

To learn more about the safety of cosleeping and how you can safely cosleep with your baby, visit http://www.cosleeping.org/