How necessary are bed rails?

We have recently moved Noah into his bed from a cot and I cannot tell you enough how amazing his bed rail has been, not only does it help him to "not fall out of bed" but I think it gives him the sense that he is in his cot still. He wakes up and if I do not go up there for 15 minutes to get him up and ready for the day, he will not get out of bed. I leave it longer sometimes to test him - see if he will get out and he doesn't. Its amazing! I really thought we would have problems with the toddler bed but I think because of the bed rail it has made the transition a lot easier for Noah to understand what is happening. Noah is only 17 months old, so a little young but we wanted him to be settled before the newborn arrives in 3 weeks.

We are buying a bed from ikea with rails around three sides to help her feel like she is still in a cot and so can't roll out on a night, but still has the ability to get out on her own, like a proper bed. We'll see how it goes!

We have never used a bed rail for the Wee Man, and he has never fallen out of his bed. The reason he got his bed was because he was climbing out of the cot, and I decided that he'd probably just try and climb over a bed rail too!

We had a bed rail and it was peace of mind more than anything. My eldest still falls out of bed on occasions now. We have the Lindham one too and even took it on holiday one year.