In plain words
Safe Sleep Seven is a short set of safety points that La Leche League International teaches to families who sleep close to their babies. It is the family-facing version of the counseling that breastfeeding clinicians use. The aim is to lower the risk of a sleep-related death for families who will bed-share anyway. The AAP advises against bedsharing, and families often hear that advice first. Clinicians and families both use these points as a way to talk about the choice honestly. Families who bed-share are not careless, and a non-judgmental conversation tends to help more than a lecture. A or your pediatrician can talk through sleep questions with you.
The deeper version
The Safe Sleep Seven is a family-facing summary of risk-minimization counseling developed for breastfeeding families who bedshare. It sits alongside the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's Protocol #6 on bedsharing and breastfeeding (revised 2019), which addresses counseling for families who choose it. The points address familiar risk factors, including the sleep surface, positioning, bedding, adult alcohol and medication use, smoking, and sleeping on sofas or chairs. Evidence for these counseling approaches is observational, and the risk reduction they produce has not been measured in controlled trials. The principal controversy is between advising against bedsharing altogether, as the AAP does, and harm-reduction counseling that many breastfeeding clinicians use.
Where it comes up
- Breastfeeding and sleep: feeding to sleep, night feeds, and sharing the loadFeeding Your Baby
- Newborn sleep and safe sleepBaby Basics
What mothers here say about Safe Sleep Seven
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Sources
- La Leche League International — Safe Sleep Seven: family resource on bedsharing
- Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine — Clinical Protocol #6: Bedsharing and Breastfeeding (revised 2019)