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"In fact, the family bed may even offer protection against infant death. In his latest peer-reviewed medical research conducted at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. McKenna theorizes that infants who sleep alone are at a significantly increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). According to the National SIDS Alliance, one in every 500 American infants, or 7,000 to 8,000 babies a year, die of this still-mysterious phenomenon. This number represents a larger proportion of the U.S. infant mortality rate than cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, child abuse, AIDS, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy combined.

McKenna and co-researcher Dr. Sarah Mosko, a psychobiologist and sleep specialist at the University of California Sleep Disorders Laboratory, performed two pilot projects on the physiological influences that sleep-sharing mothers and babies exert on one another. McKenna monitored the breathing patterns, heart rates, brain waves, and chin and eye movements of mothers and their infants in various sleeping arrangements, and, using infrared cameras, videotaped mothers" and infants" sleeping behavior. Results from these tests showed that mothers and babies who sleep together are extremely attuned to one another even while asleep. Neither partner disturbed the other"s rest. Mothers and babies seemed to move simultaneously through the various sleep stages, and yet co-sleeping infants spent less time overall in the deepest state of sleep -- the period most dangerous to SIDS-vulnerable infants. In one of the observed pairs, the infant spent eighty-seven percent of her time within twelve inches of her mother"s face. This behavior allows co-sleeping babies to breathe in some of the parent"s expelled carbon dioxide. According to McKenna, when this carbon dioxide is mixed with oxygen, it induces stable breathing.

McKenna"s studies demonstrate that American parents may heighten the risk of SIDS by expecting their babies to sleep alone at too tender an age. Vulnerable infants, he posits, need to "learn" safe sleep habits, such as moving through varying sleep-states and breathing patterns, or they risk falling into a period of heavy, uninterrupted slumber from which they might not awaken. McKenna"s research suggests it may be through sleeping alongside an adult that an infant develops these skills and receives the continuous contact and stimulation that can protect against SIDS. Additionally, a mother who sleeps with her infant has been shown to be keenly aware of her child"s breathing and temperature throughout the night, and is thus able to quickly respond to any significant changes.

Data collected from other countries supports McKenna"s theory. In Hong Kong, Japan and China, where mothers almost always sleep with their infants, SIDS rates are a fraction of what they are in the United States. SIDS rates remain low among communities of Asians who immigrate to the United States. However, the number of SIDS deaths rises in direct relation to the amount of time an Asian parent lives in the United States, possibly due to the adoption of American-style customs, such as separate sleeping quarters for mothers and babies.

Joseph Gilhooly, M.D., newborn specialist and advisor to the Oregon SIDS Alliance, views the emerging research on co-sleeping and SIDS as promising, stating, "We have to wake up and look at family sleeping customs. It"s a natural way to be. Babies have slept beside a parent for millions of years. Other mammals sleep with their parents -- it"s unique for humans to force infants to be independent, like babies being forced into a strict feeding schedule."

Dr. William Sears strongly concurs in his recent top-seller, SIDS: A Parent"s Guide to Understanding and Preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Sears contends that based on his experience as a physician and the father of eight children, a family bed is the safest place for an infant to sleep."

http://www.breastfeeding.com/reading_room/family_bed.html