Quebec coroner calls for infant bed-sharing recommendations after death of 26-day-old baby
Posted December 4, 2025 11:42 pm.
Last Updated December 5, 2025 4:00 pm.
Quebec Coroner’s Office is calling on the Quebec health ministry to define recommendations on infant bed-sharing, also known as co-sleeping, after a 26-day old baby died due to asphyxiation last January.
In a recent report released, Coroner Daniel Riverin is asking the ministry to task the Quebec public health institute (INSPQ) with developing fact sheets “on the benefits and issues surrounding the practice of co-sleeping” on the INSPQ’s perinatal information portal.
Riverin is also calling for funding an awareness campaign targeting health professionals and parents once the guidance is developed.
In his report, Riverin cited a Statistics Canada study on infant bed sharing, conducted between 2015 and 2016, which showed that 33 per cent of mothers who had given birth in the previous five years said to practice co-sleeping frequently and 27 per cent occasionally.
He also noted that a guidance on co-sleeping was required as there were questions among community workers and health professionals about the benefits of co-sleeping, such as facilitating breastfeeding, and the risks associated with the practice.
The recommendations come following an investigation into the death of a 26-day-old baby in Trois-Rivières back in January 2025.
According to the investigation report, the incident involved an unidentified mother puts her baby to sleep in the bed with pillows after feeding the child with a bottle, like she had done routinely since birth. However, the following morning the mother noticed the baby was cold and wasn’t breathing.
In a 911 call, she was guided to resuscitate until the paramedics arrived minutes later.
“The paramedics found that (the baby) was unconscious, cyanotic (blue in color), and (baby’s) heart had stopped beating. They noted difficulty performing the ventilations necessary for resuscitation because his body had become rigid,” Riverin wrote.
The baby was the transported to the emergency room at the Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire régional de Trois-Rivières (CHAURTR) where doctors attempt to revive the child before declaring the child dead.
