Sleeping Safe: Perceptions of Risk and Value in Western and Pacific Infant Co-sleeping

Abstract

In many cultures, parent and infant co-sleeping is a common and accepted practice. In countries as diverse as Japan, Italy, and Cameroon, it is expected that infants sleep with their parents for protection, and co-sleeping is valued for the intimate sociality it is believed to foster (Yovsi and Keller 2007; Tahhan 2008, and this book; Toselli, Costabile, and Genta, this book). Among Mayan Indians and Swedish populations, co-sleeping is associated with infants’ emotional wellbeing (Morelli et al. 1992; Welles-Nystrom 2005). The only societies where infant co-sleeping (usually defined as bed sharing) is not widely practiced are Western, predominantly Anglo-Saxon countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and some European countries (Worthman and Melby 2002; Owens 2004). Medical literature and public-health material produced in these countries does not recommend bed sharing because of its association with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Mainstream parenting ideas about infant care also connect co-sleeping and SIDS risk with concerns about lack of privacy and unhealthy infant development.