Co-sleepers do any of you tell the truth to midwives/health visitors?

[lilysma]

DS is a month old tomorrow and we have co-slept from birth (i.e. he and I share my double bed and DH sleeps separately). Have just had a health visitor visit and as usual lied through my teeth about co-sleeping when I would actually have liked to have had a chat about the issues it raises (e.g. problems with daytime naps that are plaguing me and being confined to my bedroom from 8pm until morning!).

But I didn't feel able to tell her or the midwives because the whole tone of the questions around this issue is 'you don't co-sleep, do you? because it's very dangerous'. I felt like I would be reported to social services or at the least given a lecture if I 'confessed'. I find this quite frustrating given that the evidence re the safety of co-sleeping (i.e. in the same bed) versus cot/moses basket sleeping is quite mixed as I understand it.

Has anyone come clean about this to HVs or midwives? What happened??

I have co-slept from birth and my DD is now 14 months old. Up until she was about 4 months old, she wouls stay up with us till about 10am and sleep in with me till about 10am. Now she goes down in her cot alone (breast feeding to sleep) and then comes in with us from anywhere from midnight till 6am depending on when she wakes up. We all sleep in the same bed, usually my side, but sometimes in the middle of us both.

I had no problem telling anyone, even doctors or HV and you might find they support you as there are tonnes of benefits. As long as you are aware of the risks, then it is no ones business apart from you and your family. There is a great book called 3 in a bed which you should read.

I didn't have trouble with naps as she just slept where ever. I could put her down in our bed, as she was used to it, in her pram, moses basket, anywhere!

just found this article (randomly!) and am printing it out for my health visitor, who happens to be coming today. I do feel strongly about educating healthcare people. I think some of the info on sleep is very biased, (leaflets that say SLEEPING WITH YOUR BABY CAN BE DANGEROUS - that's quite a strong message!) and creates fear and pressure which can get in the way of families making the choices which work best for them, whether its cot or co sleeping or whatever.

Anyway here's the article

www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/sids-latest-research-how-sleeping-your-baby-safe

enjoy!

We cosleep and I purposely didn't tell the HV/MW. Largely because I thought it wasn't their business, I had done my research (3 In A Bed, UNICEF guidelines etc) and nothing they said would have changed my mind.

Obviously it's not for everyone, some people hate the thought of it and others aren't recommended (bottle feeding for example) but for us it has been a God-send and I wouldn't have coped without it.

I agree with Cleverything - one of the reasons we co-slept was that I was fairly sure that I would fall asleep on a sofa with DD if we didn't. We also planned to co-sleep, rather than just ending up doing it one night.

I told our HV at our first meeting, she checked that I knew about the risks and I think she gave me a leaflet. She wrote in DD's red book that we were co-sleeping and I was aware of the risks. That was it. But I doubt that many people would take me on in a fight.