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VIDEO | 01:22
Do you share a bed with your baby? Here’s how to reduce suffocation risk
California

Do you share a bed with your baby? Here’s how to reduce suffocation risk

Jenny Gold. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Kate Sequeira. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
By Jenny Gold and Kate Sequeira
Experts have long warned that sharing a bed with an infant is risky, and for decades, safe sleep campaigns have pushed families to avoid it altogether. But for years, bed-sharing rates have remained high — and so have infant death rates. Now, some safe sleep advice is changing to accommodate this reality.

For the record:

11:35 a.m. Nov. 21, 2025An earlier headline on this video said bed sharing with your baby could be made safe by following certain advice. Experts say that while certain changes can reduce the risk of danger to an infant, the practice always presents a risk to the baby.

CaliforniaEarly ChildhoodEducation
Jenny Gold

Jenny Gold covers early childhood development and education for the Los Angeles Times. Before joining The Times in 2023, she spent nearly 14 years covering healthcare for radio and print as a senior correspondent at Kaiser Health News. Her stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, NPR, Reveal and Marketplace, among others. A Berkeley native, she is a graduate of Brown University and was previously a Kroc fellow at NPR.

Kate Sequeira

Kate Sequeira is the audience editor for the Los Angeles Times early childhood education initiative. She worked previously as a production specialist for The Times’ Reading by 9 literacy program.

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