**No—crib use is not universal, even in affluent countries.** Infant sleeping arrangements vary considerably with culture, rather than simply with the ability to afford a crib.

For example, a 2010 study surveyed parents of **29,287 children aged birth to three years in 17 countries and regions**. Reported bed-sharing ranged from **5.8% in New Zealand to 83.2% in Vietnam**. These were internet survey results, including toddlers, so they are not a worldwide census of infant crib use—but they clearly contradict the assumption that almost everyone uses cribs. [Cross-cultural sleep study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20138578/)

Alternatives include:

- **Floor futons or sleeping mats**, particularly in Japan, either separate from or shared with parents. Research specifically documents infant futons, including firm mattresses made for babies. A Japanese infant futon should not be assumed equivalent to an adult futon or a Western sofa-bed mattress. [Japanese infant-bedding study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0266613810002032)
- **Sharing a parent’s bed**, as the international survey above illustrates. Its prevalence does not establish its safety.
- **Bassinets, approved bedside sleepers, and portable cribs or play yards**. These provide separate infant sleeping spaces without requiring a conventional wooden crib, although bassinets have relatively limited size and developmental allowances. [AAP recommendations](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/1/e2022057990/188304/Sleep-Related-Infant-Deaths-Updated-)

Your intuition about cribs does identify a practical benefit: **containment**. A mobile baby stays within a small, controlled space while the parent sleeps. With an open floor bed, the room becomes the accessible space, so furniture, cords, small objects, and gaps around the mattress all matter. Elevation primarily makes reaching a young baby more convenient; height itself is not a requirement for safe infant sleep.

For your decision, though, **fall prevention is only one part of sleep safety**. A floor mattress reduces fall height but can still present suffocation or entrapment hazards. For babies under one year, current American Academy of Pediatrics guidance recommends a safety-approved crib, bassinet, portable crib, or play yard with its intended firm, flat mattress, a fitted sheet, and no soft objects or loose bedding. It recommends sleeping on the back and sharing the parents’ room on a separate surface, ideally for at least the first six months. An ordinary adult futon on the floor does not meet that recommendation simply because it is low. [AAP safe-sleep guidance](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/A-Parents-Guide-to-Safe-Sleep.aspx)

So your friends’ arrangement has cultural precedents, but that does not establish either its claimed developmental advantages or its safety for an infant. **A crib or approved play yard is the straightforward option after the bassinet; a floor bed is a separate decision to revisit as your child gets older.**