This makes me really angry also. Safe co-sleeping is safer than baby sleeping alone, but it seems that there is a huge reluctance to tell people that. Instead it seems easier to just say "don't do it". But that is doing families a dis-service on so many levels. It's not giving them the information to make their own choice, and let's face it, at some time pretty much every parent is going to bring a baby into bed with them when the baby won't settle. So why not accept that and give people the information to do it safely. And co-sleeping in a bed is sure safer than a parent not taking the baby into bed with them because they've been told not to and then falling asleep with the baby on the couch.

I have heard James McKenna speak on co-sleeping - he is a brilliant anthropologist who has written books on parenting and promotes the safe co-sleeping message around the US. I love his work and he really makes sense with his messages. If only there were more like him. He will be in Aus again soon, hopefully the media will pick him up like they did last time and promote him on mainstream TV!