A Victorian coroner has criticised the inconsistent advice that parents get about babies sleeping in the same bed as their parents.

Coroner John Olle was handing down the findings into the deaths of four babies aged between 10 weeks and five months.

All died of SIDS - or sudden infant death syndrome - and all had been sleeping in a bed next to at least one of their parents when they died.



Mr Olle said it is "inherently dangerous" for a parent to sleep in the same bed as an infant younger than a year old.

"Caregiver/infant sharing of sleep surfaces, beds, sofas, mattresses and armchairs increases the risk of infant death from a fatal sleep accident and may increase the risk of infant death from SIDS," he said.

The coroner criticised the inconsistent messages from health professionals about the practice, saying they must put their personal beliefs aside.

He said in the first six to 12 months of life, babies should sleep on their backs in a cot in the same room as their parents.

Mr Olle recommended strengthening public health messages about the dangers of co-sleeping and making sure that information is given to pregnant women and new parents.

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SIDS and Kids spokeswoman Jill Green has welcomed the coroner's recommendations.

"We know that little ones are dying in co-sleeping situations and we also know that we need to inform parents with consistent messages, and they're not getting that at the moment," she said.

"I think parents are getting mixed messages from, not only health professionals, but media.

"Flipping through magazines you can see beautiful photos but it may be of a babe on the tummy. It might be of mum and dad sharing a surface with the baby.

"All along that pathway through pregnancy, through the birth at the hospital and post-natally, parents deserve to be informed by consistent messages; evidence-based messages.

"Most of the time if we know why we have to do something then that changes our behaviour."

Ms Green says in Australia nearly half of all SIDS deaths occur when the baby is co-sleeping with a parent.

"Each year in Australia over a 100 little ones that are placed in their sleeping environment, there's around about 100 who die, just over 100 that die of sudden unexpected death in infancy," she said.

"Near half of those deaths are in co-sleeping situations. So we need to look at the parents themselves. Is there smoking involved? Is there drugs or alcohol?

"But also we need to look at the infant. Is the infant more vulnerable at that time? Do they have a cold or an infection? Is that why parents have brought them into bed to try and settle them?

"So a safe sleeping environment for an infant is in a safe cot."