never sleep with baby or keep me close but keep me safe….pdf

Current Pediatric Reviews, 2010 , 6, 71-77 71 ! "#$%&%'(%)"*!+##,**-,**! .!/*"*!0123456!7891281!:;<=9>41?>!***@3A, ! Never Sleep with Baby? Or Keep Me Close But Keep Me Safe: Eliminating Inappropriate “Safe Infan t Sleep” Rhetoric in the United States Lee T. Gettler *,1,2,4 and James J. McKenna 3,4 1Department of Anthropology, 2Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health, Institute for Policy Research Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA 3Department of Anthropology, 4Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA Abstract: Creating public health messages regarding how mothers should sleep close and safely with their babies is tricky and complex. It requires an appreciation of what exactly the term “sleeping with baby” and “co-sleeping” can mean. It also requires sensitivity to what parents will or can do if told emphatically “never sleep with your baby.” In the United States, well-intentioned public health messages from prominent government agencies about safe infant sleep have increasingly used language that equates “safe infant sleep” with the absence of the mother. Many messages seemingly imply that all forms of “co-s