Co-sleeping isn't recommended, but the reality is most parents will fall asleep with their babies at some stage, whether it's planned or not.

Sometimes it happens because your baby is unwell and you can't get them to settle any other way, or because you're simply exhausted and accidentally fall asleep lying next to them, or for countless other reasons.

So even though co-sleeping is never recommended from a safe-sleep perspective, it's important to know how to make it as safe as possible if and when you do end up bed sharing with your baby.

Co-sleeping can be made safer in several different ways.

In this article I'll walk you through what those are so you can put them into practice whether you co-sleep with your baby regularly or if you happen to bed share occasionally.

Safety is important even if you only do it on the odd occasion.

7 Essential Tips to Make Co-Sleeping Safer

How to set up the co-sleeping environment

Regardless of your reasons for co-sleeping, whether it's planned co-sleeping or accidental, co-sleeping does create an increased risk of SIDS, suffocation, and other sleep-related infant death particularly in the first 12 months.

So if and when you do it, you need to take steps to reduce the risk as much as possible, starting with preparing the environment.

If you are co-sleeping, you should be sleeping on a firm, flat mattress.

Never on a water bed or placing anything soft underneath them, for example, a lambswool underlay or a pillow as this can actually increase the risk of overheating, which is a known risk factor for SIDS, as well as increase the risk of accidental suffocation.

You should also move the bed or mattress away from the wall or other pieces of furniture because this will ensure your baby can't get trapped between the bed and the wall or the bed and those pieces of furniture.

Now, this often leads parents to becoming concerned that their baby may roll out of the bed and fall onto the floor.

So to limit the risk of falling, obviously ensure that your baby's not close to the edge of the bed and think about whether or not you want to place that mattress directly on the floor because this will reduce the risk of your baby accidentally falling out of the bed significantly.

Do not place pillows on the side of your baby to prevent them rolling off as this will actually increase the risk of overheating, as well as suffocation.

How to co-sleep as safely as possible

Once the bed is prepared and it's time to hop in with your baby, make sure that you position your baby so that they are to the side of one caregiver and not between two caregivers because when you sleep a baby between two caregivers, it increases the likelihood of the baby's head becoming covered or slipping beneath the adult bedding and resulting in suffocation, as well as increases the risk of overheating, which is a known risk factor for SIDS.

You also want to make sure that you place your baby on their back to sleep, never on their tummy or their side because babies who sleep on their back are much less likely to die of SIDS than babies who sleep on their stomach or their sides.

And most importantly, you wanna make sure that there is a clear space around your baby, so you do not want any blankets, pillows, sheets, Doonas, lambswools, or soft toys within reach.

And this is because these items can actually increase the risk of SIDS, suffocation, entrapment and wedging, as well as strangulation.

Now, if it is a cold night, instead of using bedding like blankets and Doonas, you want to place your baby in a safe sleeping bag with their arms out.

You don't ever want to wrap or swaddle your baby when you're bed sharing or co-sleeping.

And lastly, you want to make sure that your partner is aware that you've actually placed the baby in the bed with you.

Situations when it is never safe to co-sleep with a baby

While this advice helps to reduce the risks associated with co-sleeping, there are times when you should never share a bed or co-sleep with a baby even if you're doing all the things I just mentioned.

But before I go into those, if you haven't already, make sure you download your free copy of my "New Parent's Guide to Naps" which will help you get your little one to take better naps during the day by understanding their sleep requirements based on their age.

So the situations where you should never share a bed with your baby are firstly, if the baby shares a sleep surface with a caregiver who is a smoker or under the influence of alcohol or drugs that causes sedation.

And that's because the risk of sleep-related infant death is actually 10 times higher for a baby who shares their bed with someone who is fatigued or has taken medication that makes it harder for them to wake up.

The second situation is if the baby is premature or small when they were born, so they have a low birth weight or they're less than four months of age and that's because the risk of sleep-related infant death while bed sharing is actually 5 to 10 times higher when the baby is younger than four months of age and two to five times higher when your baby is born prematurely or they have a low birth weight.

The third situation is if adult bedding, Doonas, or pillows are being used and they may accidentally cover the infant.

And that's because the risk of sleep-related infant death is two to five times higher for babies who bed share when adult bedding is being used.

The fourth situation is if the baby is sharing the bed with other children or pets, and that's because the sleep-related infant death is 5 to 10 times higher than the baseline risk of a parent and infant bed sharing, so it's significantly higher.

And the last situation is if the baby is placed to sleep on a sofa, bean bag, water bed, or a saggy mattress, and that's because the risk of sleep-related infant death is up to 67 times higher when infants sleep with someone on a couch, a soft armchair, or a cushion.

Now, while all of these things help to reduce the risks associated with co-sleeping, unfortunately, those risks can never be eliminated completely.

And for that reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Red Nose Australia don't recommend co-sleeping and instead recommend that you always place your baby on their back, but in a crib, bassinet, portacot, or a play yard, and always on a firm mattress with a fitted sheet, and you could place that in your room particularly in the first six months of their life because that will help to reduce the risk of SIDS.

If you're struggling with your newborn sleep and you want to learn how to get them to fall asleep easier and stay asleep for longer, make sure you watch this article next where you'll get my top seven tips to improve your newborn sleep

Newborn Sleep