In time for safe sleep week - 12-18th March 2018 - Amy and Jen chat about how to have confident, informed conversations with parents around co-sleeping. We know many parents do it and gone are the days when HVs were forced to advocate a blanket ban on co-sleeping in all its forms. By giving advice on safer ways to co-sleep and reducing the risks, HVs can support parents in their choice.

We also talk about a recent research article which looks into how well the safe sleep messages have been absorbed by vulnerable families, spoiler alert, there is a predictable inequity.

Finally, Jen gives Amy a quiz - can you get full marks?!

We would love to hear from you with your experiences on discussing sleep with parents. Are there any common questions you find difficult to answer? Let us know, we would like to do another episode around listener examples of sleep issues in practice.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Resources and Further Reading:

Recent SIDs Statistics in the UK:
https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/professionals/statistics-on-sids/

Lullaby Trust, ISIS and BabyFriendly - A joint guide on co-sleeping advice for Health Professionals:
https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/07/Co-sleeping-and-SIDS-A-Guide-for-Health-Professionals.pdf

Pease and colleagues (2017) - 'Mothers’ knowledge and attitudes to sudden infant death syndrome risk reduction messages: results from a UK survey'
http://adc.bmj.com/content/103/1/33