Fear Of Being Judged Drives British Moms To Lie About Co-Sleeping With Babies

A recent survey found that almost half of British mothers lie about co-sleeping with their babies when asked by healthcare professionals. The act has been triggered by the fear of being judged as a reckless parent for having such sleeping arrangement.

The Daily Mail reported that the recent survey, which involved 600 British women, found that 46 percent of the respondents have lied to a general practitioner, midwife or health visitor when inquired about co-sleeping with their infants. It was also discovered that almost 50 percent of all mothers actually sleep next to their babies at some points of their infancy because they found it practical when breastfeeding or bonding with them.

Experts warned that these lies come with consequences. With this, mothers will not be properly guided by the healthcare professionals on how to sleep next to their child in a safe manner.

"I lied. I just told my health visitor that my baby sleeps fine," Steph Randall, a mother who participated in the survey, said in an article of The Sun. "The truth is that she sleeps fine if she's always in total body contact with me. At six months, she still sleeps across my body in bed."

The survey was commissioned by "Gentle Parenting" website owner Sarah Ockwell-Smith for her new book "Why Your Baby's Sleep Matters." The book refutes earlier claims of some parenting experts that co-sleeping with infants is not safe.

"In this country we don't like co-sleeping because we think it will create clingy children," Ockwell-Smith told the Sunday Times, as reported by The Telegraph. "But all the research supports that both moms and babies get more sleep when they bed-share. And at five, children who co-slept are no more likely to be in their parents' beds than those who slept in a cot."

In England and Whales, over 200 babies per year die due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Previous studies had linked co-sleeping, along with other factors, as the cause of SIDS.

"We don't know what causes these babies to die suddenly but we do know that if a parent smokes, drinks alcohol or takes drugs then SIDS is potentially more likely to occur if they then co-slept with their infant," explained Mark Baker, clinical practice director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.