Babies died lying in bed with drunk parents

NINE babies in Walsall died when they fell asleep on sofas or in bed with their parents who had been drinking, a report revealed.

The report presented to Walsall’s Health and Wellbeing Board showed there had been nine “unexpected” deathsout of a total of 32 in 2019/20.

Health bosses said most of these were down to unsafe practices such as sofa sleeping, co-sleeping, alcohol misuse or pillows and bumpers in cots.

Stark messages are now being shared to promote safe sleeping practices across Walsall and the Black Country, based on the Who’s In Charge? campaign launched in Birmingham last year.

The initiative, by Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust and Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership, saw scenarios created on video where parents returned home drunk before falling asleep on a sofa or in bed with their children.

Esther Higdon, senior programme development and commissioning manager, Children and Young People at Walsall, said 12 of the 32 deaths in 2019-20 happened within the first 28 days.

She said these were expected due to babies being born prematurely and having very low weight or congenital anomalies. But of the deaths of babies older than a month, she said nine were unexpected.

She said: “The majority of these deaths have been due to safe sleeping issues, whether it is co-sleeping, sofa sleeping, parents drinking alcohol whilst caring for the child or bumpers and pillows in the cot.”

Dr Joanna Garstang, consultant community paediatrician at Birmingham Community Healthcare, said: “The safest place for a baby to sleep is on their back, in their own cot, in a room with their parents.

“It is never safe for a baby to share a bed or a sofa with anyone who has drunk alcohol or used drugs.”