This Mum Wants You To Know The Risks Of Bed Sharing After Her 6-Week-Old Son Died

A mum is determined to raise awareness of the risks of bed sharing after her six-week-old son died.

Rowan Leach, 20, was told at the inquest of her son’s death that they were unable to find a “definitive cause of death”, but saw no suspicious circumstances.

Leach told of how she had brought her son into bed with her at 3am to be fed, and fell asleep. When she woke up at 8am, he was not breathing. She tried to revive him, later along with the paramedics, but they were unsuccessful.

The coroner told Leach he found no criticism of her as a mother, and expressed sympathy at the fact she was caring for her child as a single parent.

NataliaDeriabina via Getty Images

“Although there was no conclusive evidence to suggest bed sharing impacted on this tragic event, I am hoping more can be done in future to raise awareness of the risks of bed sharing to prevent any more parents suffering as I have,” Leach said, according to the Telegraph. “The loss of my precious son Hadley has left me deeply heartbroken.”

In January 2018, figures revealed 665 babies’ deaths in the past five years have been linked to sleeping in the same bed as a parent. The figures, obtained by the Mirror, found there were 141 deaths linked to co-sleeping in 2017, 131 in 2016, 121 in 2015, 141 in 2014 and 131 in 2013.

According to the NCT, although most parents don’t plan to sleep with their baby, around half of all mums in the UK do so at some time in the first few months after birth.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) updated its recommendations about co-sleeping in December 2014 and confirmed that although sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is rare, it does happen more often when parents or carers sleep with a baby (on a bed, sofa or chair).

The charity The Lullaby Trust and the NHS agree that the safest place for a baby to sleep is in their own cot or Moses basket in their parents’ bedroom until they are at least six months old. However, the charity states it does not tell parents to never bed share and if it is something parents choose to do, they need to be made aware of how to minimise the risks.

Issuing guidance on safer sleep for babies, The Lullaby Trust said parents should never co-sleep with their baby in bed if:

Either you or your partner smokes (even if you do not smoke in the bedroom)
Either you or your partner has drunk alcohol or taken drugs (including medications that may make you drowsy)
You are extremely tired
Your baby was born premature (37 weeks or less) or was of low birth weight (2.5kg or 51/2lbs or less).

For more information, visit lullabytrust.org.uk/safer-sleep-advice/co-sleeping.

Before You Go

Baby Sleep Tricks

The Guide Book(01 of04)

The Gentle Sleep Solution: The Naturally Nurturing Way To Help Your Baby To Sleep offers a gentle alternative to controlled crying methods. Drawing on her experience as a psychologist, CBT therapist and mother of four, Shallow teaches parents, firstly, how to identify the underlying reason for their baby's troubled sleeping by reading their behaviour, and, secondly, how to respond in ways that will help to reduce their anxiety and allow them to fall asleep independently. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)

The Bedtime Story Book(02 of04)

Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin spent more than three years perfecting his bestselling sleep-inducing bedtime story The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep. Using psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to help little ones to relax, focus and eventually drift off, he describes the story as “the verbal equivalent of rocking a baby to sleep.” (credit:Penguin Random House)

The Smartphone App(03 of04)

The Sound Sleeper app, gives you a choice of sounds for lulling your baby to sleep according to her personal preferences – whether that’s the rhythm of the womb, a gentle ‘shhh’ or the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It also ‘listens’ for your baby and starts playing the sound you’ve chosen as soon as it hears a whimper. You can even track your baby’s sleep and generate graphs to help you learn and analyse your baby’s sleep patterns. (credit:Layland Masuda via Getty Images)

The Night Light(04 of04)

The Sleepy Baby™ Biological LED Lamp light bulb works by filtering out the stimulating blue light spectrum that can inhibit your baby’s production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Although it provides adequate light for bedtime stories, nappy changes and night-time feeds, your baby’s brain registers the light as darkness, making it easier for them to fall back asleep. (credit:Lighting Science)