After uploading a photo of her newborn son resting on his stomach, Gemma Atkinson has been inundated with messages from worried parents.
Gemma and her boyfriend, Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Gorka Marquez, had their first child, Thiago, in August.
The mother-of-two revealed photographs of her two-month-old meeting her Planet Radio co-star Mike Toolan in a recent Instagram post, including one of the baby resting on his front.
‘When Thiago met Toolan! Tools came round today and he gently leaned over the sleeping beauty to a welcoming sound of wet fart,’ she captioned the post.
‘As usual Tools ate half the contents in the fridge and left with more food boxed up for his tea. Someone’s gotta look after him!’
People quickly criticised the mother for Thiago’s sleeping posture in the comments section.
‘Please put him to sleep on his back to prevent SIDS,’ one person wrote, referring to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Another added: ‘Oh not sure about babies sleeping on their front, that could be quite dangerous.’
Is lying a baby on their front that bad?
The safest sleeping position for a baby is on their back, according to sleep safety charity the Lullaby Trust, and parents should always place a baby onto their back and not on their front or side.
This is because sleeping your baby on their back ‘significantly reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)’.
On Gemma’s Instagram, plenty of people said they allowed babies to sleep on their fronts in the past, but this is because the advice has changed.
‘Many parents will have been slept on their tummies as babies, as that was the advice before 1991,’ the charity says, explaining that research has progressed since then.
‘We know that in the early 1990s, there were thousands of babies worldwide dying suddenly and unexpectedly every year. The reason the number of deaths is much lower now is due to the new advice being followed by parents, such as lying babies on their backs to sleep.’
What Is SIDs?
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) – sometimes known as “cot death” – is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.
‘In the UK, around 200 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly every year,’ the NHS says. ‘This statistic may sound alarming, but SIDS is rare and the risk of your baby dying from it is low.’
That said, some parents find it difficult to get their babies to nap on their backs, or when they’re older, the baby rolls over.
Shaming mums on social media does little to help, in what can already be a stressful time.
In response to the negative comments on her Instagram, Gemma said: ‘He does sleep on his back. He naps on his front a few times throughout the day when I’m sat on the chair next to him. He’s also able to lift and move his head in both directions when on his front. Not my first rodeo with babies.’
Once babies can roll, parents aren’t expected to stay awake and watch them all night, which is why it’s important to encourage back sleeping and get them into a habit of sleeping in this position from the start.
If you’ve found your baby likes to nap on their front, the Lullaby Trust instead offers the following advice: ‘We sometimes get calls from parents who say their baby prefers sleeping on their front. If a baby is given a choice, they may well prefer this position, but unfortunately it is not a safe one!
‘This is why we encourage all parents to follow back-sleeping from day one. Getting your baby to stick to sleeping on their back once they have tried sleeping on their front might be difficult, but is made easier if your baby is always put down to sleep whilst awake rather than allowing your baby to fall asleep in your arms. Keep going, they will eventually get used to it.’
