Episode 43: Safe Co-Sleeping Practices: Interview with Gail Root

In today’s episode, we are discussing safe co-sleeping or bed sharing practices. Our guest to discuss this topic is Gail Root. With a life devoted to teaching, counseling, and guiding new parents into their most important role as loving caregivers, Gail Root has the perfect combination of child development knowledge and Perinatal Psychology experience.

I’ve heard it said before that co-sleeping is like teenagers having sex. We can tell them not to do it, but at the end of the day many of them are going to do it anyway, so you might as well teach them how to do it safely.

In this episode we discuss:

Questions to consider concerning sleep for your family

Child’s temperament
Your gut instinct
How you sleep

Attachment Parenting: can mean many things, most consider it to be an approach to raising children by listening to the cues of your child and responding to those cues

Being responsive and sensitive
Nurturing child through touch
Holding/carrying baby a lot

Co sleeping/bed sharing: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns against bed sharing, but it has quadrupled in US in last 25 years. AAP position, understandably, seeks to keep babies as safe as possible, appears to emerge from an abundance of caution

Breastsleeping: coined by Dr. James Mckenna, PhD, Director of the Mother-Baby Sleep Lab at University of Notre Dame

Cuddle curl: breastfeeding parent lays on side with knees up and stacked with arm tucked under head and curled around baby to create a protected space

Safe way to co-sleep/bed share:

On a flat and firm surface
With blankets away from baby
In cuddle curl position
Breastfeeding parent must be free of mind altering substances (alcohol, etc.) and should have not smoked cigarettes either
Moms with long hair should have their hair pulled back into pony tail
Ensure there is no gap between the bed and the bed frame
A dock-a-tot is not recommended/considered safe

This is a way that the nursing parent can nurse during the night in the side-lying position

Gail’s Recommended Book List: