Ep. 66: Safe Sleep Education: Is Abstinence Only the Only Way?

About this episode

The episode discusses safe sleep education and the implications of abstinence-only messaging for parents.

If you have listened to a lot of my podcasts, you know I like to talk about sleep. It's one of the biggest topics for parents today. And part of why we have to talk about it is because those of us is WEIRD countries - Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic countries - get a very specific sleep message when we have our kids and that message is: Do NOT sleep with your children or you risk killing them. I think every new parent has heard the fear-based messaging that tells us there is nothing we can do except avoid it. And if we don't? Well, then there's something wrong with us as parents, right? What if the problem isn't us, but instead lies with the messaging we're getting? Joining me today is one of my favourite people - Carly Grubb. Carly is a PhD student at the University of the Sunshine Coast and is the lead author of the research we'll be discussing, which looks at the safe sleep messages parents receive, how helpful these messages are, and what parents are actually looking for. She also comes to this research table from a place of advocacy. As the founder of the Beyond Sleep Training Project and Little Sparklers, Carly has heard from thousands of families…

People in this episode

Host: Tracy Cassels

Guest: Carly Grubb

Topics covered

• safe sleep education
• parenting
• sleep messages
• abstinence-only education
• parenting advocacy

Keywords

• safe sleep
• parenting
• sleep education
• abstinence-only
• parenting messages
• Carly Grubb
• Tracy Cassels

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of the Sunshine Coast, Beyond Sleep Training Project, Little Sparklers, Frontiers in Public Health