[EL_Loco]

If the mother doesn't drink/smoke, has normal sleep, and the baby is healthy, it's not considered dangerous and was practiced by all of humankind for most of its past. Separate rooms and separate beds are a very, very recent invention. For most of humankind's history mothers slept with their babies.

[joyeuse6701]

For most of human history, infant mortality rates were much higher than they are now with the application of science.

[nraford]

Yes but due to malnutrition, dysentery, accidents and a general lack of public health and medical care, not because their parents crushed them in their sleep.

I slept with my kid (I'm a father) for almost a year and trust me, you're still deeply aware of them when they're next to you.

Smothering does happen, statistically speaking, but the odds are so tiny and the benefits so great, it's basically a misinformation campaign based on bunk 1950's science.

[infecto]

100%, I think what has happened is smothering/SIDS/co-sleeping deaths got kinda lumped together into a single statistic and I know at least for me as a new parent it really freaked me out.

When I read more into the numbers it seemed that where co-sleeping has a real risk is when it happens outside of the bed, when the caretaker falls asleep in a chair. All of the deaths get lumped together and we are just told that you need to X so you reduce the risk of SIDs. It kinda sucks because it is so hard being a new parent, it would be nice to better understand up front what the real risks are.