How the Stats Really Stack Up: Cosleeping Is Twice As Safe

"How the Stats Really Stack Up: Cosleeping Is Twice As Safe" is a paper by Tina Kimmel MSW, MPH, which has been published in Mothering, Issue 114 on September 01, 2009.
The article contains interesting statistics that not only seem to indicate that more children died in cribs than when sleeping with parents in their bed (see external links) but even the risk factor, based on infant deaths from 1980 to 1997, is more than twice as great when sleeping in a crib. It concludes that using the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) data "it was actually less than half (42 percent) as risky, or more than twice as safe, for an infant to be in an adult bed than in a crib..." and that "crib sleeping had a relative risk of 2.37 compared with sleeping in an adult bed."
Summary
The article responds to the issue raised by The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association (JPMA, the crib manufacturers' lobby) who had launched a campaign to discourage parents from placing infants in adult beds i.e. sleeping with them.
Her article points out that "Using government figures, we can perform a rough calculation to show that infants are more than twice as safe in adult beds as in cribs." There are many advantages for a child to share the parents bed such as: "increased breastfeeding and physiological regulation, the experience of having slept well, parents' feeling of assurance that their child is well and happy, the enhanced security of psychological attachment and family togetherness, and family enjoyment."
She noted that of the 2,178 infant suffocation deaths reported from 1980 to 1997, we are certain of only 139 occurring in an adult bed.
Even the 102 deaths of infants up to thirteen months of age whose reported cause-of-death code is "overlain in a bed" does not tell us exactly what caused the death; that is, whether the baby died (perhaps as when in a crib since "babies also die in cribs") and then was lain on, or died as a result of being lain on.
"The same data show that 428 infants died due to being in a crib." Clearly the number of crib deaths is higher than the deaths in shared with adults. Yet how often is cosleeping prevalent?
Using population-based sampling, the statistics show that 44 percent share the bed while 56 pecent sleep in cribs. (That means the ratio is not really 139 to 428 since a greater percent sleep in cribs.) The article indicates that for every one death in a shared bed there have been 2.37 crib deaths.
She concludes with the calculation that cosleeping is more than twice as safe and so recommends cosleeping (for the advantages mentioned above) while following the safety guidelines.
About the author
Tina Kimmel MSW, MPH, is a PhD student in social welfare at the University of California-Berkeley. She has worked as a research
scientist for California's State Health Department, and is now a lecturer in Sociology at California State University Hayward. She has studied, worked, presented, and published on many significant topics including primal therapy, birth, attachment, circumcision,
breastfeeding, vaccination, adoption, and co-sleeping.
Tina Kimmel is writing her dissertation on "The Effect of Welfare Reform on Breastfeeding Rates: Findings from the Pregnancy Risk
Assessment Monitoring System," and has written a significant article about co-sleeping, (see external links) which contains
information from state PRAMS epidemiologists who shared their analyzed data for this article: "Rhonda Stephens, MPH (Alabama),
Chris Wells, MS (Colorado), Ken Rosenberg, MD, MPH (Oregon), Melissa Baker, MA (West Virginia), and especially Kathy Perham-
Hester, MS, MPH (Alaska) for her valuable insights."
PhD
Tina Kimmel is a PhD student in social welfare at the University of California-Berkeley. It is titled "The milk of human kindness: Social welfare and breastfeeding policy in the United States
by Kimmel, Tina, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, 2007, 199 pages; 3275471"
Circumcision
Another issue, less publicly emphasized, is consent relating to infant circumcision. Circumcision is one of the areas of Kimmel's expertise as mentioned. She was once interviewed about this (see external link.) One of the many issues raised in the interview is that the infant is clearly denying consent. The assent of parents assumes that the son will consent when he is older; but what if he would be more informed? What if he would read that the foreskin even provides Immunological
Defense, would the son give informed consent? In that interview, she raises other
relevant issues as well.
Other important issues she has lectured about include: vaccination and adoption.

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