Co-Sleeping with Baby: Is it Dangerous?
I remember a little of what it was like when I had just given birth to my first child: I was exhausted, all day and all night. I distinctly recall attempting to sit up at night in a chair to nurse my baby, and almost dropping her--I was so tired I almost fell asleep in the chair while holding her. In those days (ancient times), it was verboten to sleep with your baby. Unheard of. Even nursing was not fully accepted culturally, and my own mother-in-law was dismayed by my insistence on it. Even though I tried to do what was accepted and considered the norm at the time, I just could not sit up in a chair at night, so I began nursing my baby lying down, in bed. My D. H. would stagger up to get her out of the crib when she awoke, and bring her to me in bed, where she snuggled up to me and we both dosed off, she nursing happily. I have been reading lately about how that is considered dangerous. Two weeks ago there was an NPR report about co-sleeping , ...