06/03/2024
I'm so confused and angry about this campaign. 😡😡
Safe co sleeping is so much safer than falling asleep with baby in a chair. I have no idea why red nose are suddenly changing their messaging so heavily around this. It's like they have lost all reality of what really happens for families overnight. Terrible.
EDITED TO ADD -
I was too busy losing my mind over the co sleeping situation that I missed the point about no sleeping in a pram!!!! Wow! 😡 Sort this mess out stat please Red Nose Australia
It is incredibly upsetting to see Red Nose Australia returning to a risk elimination approach to shared sleep in their latest campaign, “Keep it simple, keep them safe” for
It has never been as simple as keeping a baby ALONE in their cot. (see video on their page for their campaign for reference)
Never in human history has it been simple for our human infants to sleep separately to their mother/ parent.
We are physiologically, neurologically, evolutionarily primed to sleep in proximity to our babies and they to us.
Never has it been simply a matter of placing our baby down in their cot if we feel ourselves falling asleep.
Never have we seen the rates of deaths classified as SUDI (including SIDS) in shared sleep settings decline simply because *simple* public health messages and campaigns tried to scare the life out of parents by telling them that sharing a bed with their baby is unsafe and to not do it.
Never.
And we will never see success by simply telling parents sharing sleep is unsafe.
Why?
Because it is NOT that simple.
It never has been.
Never will be.
And whoever is behind this campaign needs a reality check.
This campaign and this resource will NOT save lives.
I am actually crying as I write this.
I honestly thought we’d come further than this here in Australia.
There’s been incredible work done through the Australian College of Midwives (ACM), the Australian Breastfeeding Association and with Queensland Health through the updated Queensland Clinical Guidelines for Safer Infant Sleep.
Risk minimisation approaches to shared sleep empower families to make informed decisions about how to create safer sleep environments for THEIR baby.
THEY are the ones doing this every day and night and THEY need access to ALL the information they need to reduce risk.
We know because the research tells us, MOST families will share sleep at some stage with their baby whether they intend to or not.
Please stop this campaign Red Nose.
Our large community of parents tell us every day what they need and this is not it.
We would gladly work with you to create a truly consumer informed, co-designed AND tested resource because this simply ain’t it.
We can and should do better for families now and into the future.
Carly Grubb, 2024
Founder of Little Sparklers, home of The Beyond Sleep Training Project ✨
