Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions

This book was so helpful in educating us on how to bedshare safely. This is something that just felt right to us and helped our baby sleep so much better. I am so grateful for the research Dr. McKenna and colleagues have done to help us feel confident sleeping next to our baby. It really is such a sweet, special experience to breastsleep and to know that our baby is so much more content next to me. He sleeps more, I sleep more and knowing that both of our cortisol levels are lower is such a confirmation that we are doing what is best for the both of us. So thankful for this book and hope the message continues to spread to other moms.

I’m such a nerd for scientifically based reads. This is awesome! It was such a great tool for me when I unexpectedly became a bedsharing, breastfeeding mom. It was a helpful tool for great information around the ideas of what is safe and what is not. And it boosted my confidence in hearing opinions of family/friends about why I shouldn’t be bedsharing…and allowed me to give great information to educate them on their opinions.

Not been an American from birth but having lived in 3 different continents, I really struggled to understand the American mentality that almost vilifies parents who choose to co-sleep in the same bed with their children. The exaggeration of the media and internet on this topic added my suspicions about why this is the norm. This book helped me understand the framework that drove this current practice but also confirmed my own life experiences in other countries - there are ways to sleep with our baby in a safe and natural way. We just need to follow careful practices that revolve around the mother breast feeding.In today’s modern society with the multibillion dollars industry of baby formula we can easily forget that breast feeding is the safest and most nutritious way to help our babies grow.After reading this book we told our pediatrician the truth - our baby starts the night in her crib and in the middle of the night she moves to our bed where she eats and sleeps (breastsleeps). Our bed setting follows the book’s recommendations and others.I’m glad I read this book and also listened to the audiobook.

I had already been co-sleeping with my baby when I bought this book. As a new mom, I didn't really think about how when breastfeeding, the late night wake ups were going to be on me alone. Eventually I gave into my instincts to have her with me. It wasn't until I attempted sleep-training that I purchased this book. After about 2 hours of feeling horrible letting my baby cry herself to sleep, my instincts screamed at me to go get her. I was so nervous about creating bad habits with co-sleeping that I forced the issue. this book gave me the confidence to realize there is no rush to force her to sleep independently. And that's a silly idea created in western cultures anyway. And all the advice out there literally gets you to try and trick your baby into ignoring their own instinct to be near you. This book made me get it. My baby wants to be close to me. Thats it! So now I just let her and think about the positive influence it has on her, as documented in the studies described in the book. I'm much happier!

Safe Infant Sleep is a most excellent book for new parents! Dr. James McKenna is a world leader in mother-baby sleep research. He is well educated but speaks to parents on their level.

Loved reading this book after bringing my little one home and having some major anxiety with sleep. This book gave me the piece of mind I needed and let me know my maternal instincts were telling me exactly what I needed to know. The book also helped ensure I was creating the safest sleep environment for my little one. And gave me great research based talking points when people tried to tell me bed sharing wasn’t okay.

Good evidence based book. However, you don't need to buy it to have safe sleep. The book basically says to sleep on your side with the baby on the side of the bed as the mom, not between partners. Move the mattress away from the wall or anything the baby can get stuck between. Make sure there aren't any pillows by the babies face.This bed sharing, or as he calls it "breast-sleeping" is nice for people who sleep on their side well and don't have any shoulder injuries. It isn't a reasonable option for us, so we bought a bassinet to co-sleep.Good information- but I'm not sure you need to read the whole book.

This is an outstanding resource for parents and clinicians (and anyone) who want to understand the science and anthropological context of co-sleeping, bed sharing, and breastsleeping. As a family physician and as a parent, I consider Dr. McKenna to be the authority on safe infant sleep. I appreciate his clear and thoughtful communication, courageous advocacy, and inspiring compassion and humanity. He validates the experience of so many parents who cosleep, which we have practiced as a species for generations. I find it particularly interesting to learn about all of the immediate and lasting physiologic, psychological, and developmental effects that cosleeping has for infants, and I appreciate the way Dr. McKenna has presented this information so clearly and accessibly.

A well–researched book, full of solid scientific evidence about what really makes a good sleep. I only wish I came across the book much earlier and would have saved my baby and my family unnecessary sleep-related stress.

This book reassured me that I was not doing anything wrong cosleeping with my baby and breastfeeding him in bed, on the contrary.

A great book to help you navigate through child parent sleeping. If you’re confused with what to do this book can help guide you. IF your instincts tell you to sleep with your infant but society and so called professionals tell you otherwise, trust your instincts and this book reiterates that. A must read for all parents!

I am so grateful and thankful that Dr McKenna has wrote this book. I’m East Asian from a cosleeping culture, 99% if not 100% of people cosleep, until children enter primary school.I have majored in psychology in college, and have always thought the western practice of putting baby in another room all by itself over the long period of night bizarre(not to mention the horrific sleep training), against everything I know, both from a cultural background and a psychological background.I’ve been contemplating and writing on this issue over the years myself, but nowhere near writing a book, so I’m so glad someone else wrote it. It confirmed a lot of the observations I have, and a lot of theories I have formed over the yearsI do hope one day tide will turn for western countries on this matter

Makes me confident to cosleep with my baby despite everything you can hear about it from mainstream ressources.