Support safe co-sleeping in post-natal and paediatric hospital settings

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Health care professionals should share evidence-based information regarding safe co-sleeping in all postnatal and paediatric settings to enable parents to make informed decisions about co-sleeping.

Hospitals should support co-sleeping dyads by providing safe sleep surfaces.

The breastfeeding dyad are an inseparable biological and social unit. Co-sleeping confers many psychological and physiological benefits.

UNICEF advises ‘around half of SIDS babies die while sleeping in a cot or Moses basket. Around half of SIDS babies die while co-sleeping. However 90% of these babies died in hazardous situations which are largely preventable’. Despite this, the risks associated with co-sleeping are misrepresented and conflated with suffocation or hazardous sleep surface risks.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Petitions must call for a specific action that the UK Government or House of Commons is responsible for.

Decisions about advice and care for new parents is a matter for the NHS and individual clinicians, not the Government or House of Commons. As a result it is not possible for the Government or House of Commons to take the action you have requested.

Timeline

14 Aug 2021	Petition opened for signatures
18 Aug 2021	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 18 Aug 2021

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