To Sleep or Not to Sleep: That is the Question
By Donna Sinnott Courtesy of Nursing Mother News  The birth of a baby is truly a wonderful mystery of life.
The
birthing process hasn't changed much over the last 5000+ years. In
the beginning, before there were clocks and schedules, babies were
always breastfed by mom, on demand, day and night. Only in the last
200 years, cultures began adding on more rooms, and only in the last
10 years or so, have we seen the rise of "sleep training"
methods.In a survey of 172 societies, all infants in all cultures do some co-sleeping at night, even of only for a few hours. The U.S. consistently stands out as the only society in which babies are routinely placed in their own beds and in their own rooms. But, for many breastfed babies, night waking is normal and necessary. Night waking is as normal as co-sleeping with your child in almost every culture, except the United States. In some Western cultures, such as the United States, artificial feeding is a norm and the expectations are different. Babies are expected to sleep for long stretches alone, often in a separate room, by the time they are three or four month old. This is an arrangement that has grown over the last 200 years because of cultural reasons, not out of biological appropriateness. In almost all cultures around the globe, mothers and babies sleep close to each other at night for many reasons, mainly so that the baby can be nursed with less disruption of sleep. Parents in these cultures expect babies to wake frequently to nurse at night until they have matured enough to naturally outgrow this behavior, a process that may take years. A wakeful baby - even a wakeful older baby or toddler - is not considered unusual or a problem in these cultures.  Besides the practical reasons of co-sleeping, science is now learning
that sleeping with mom is a biological need. Infants don't develop
the ability to easily navigate types of breathing until they are at
least three or four months old. James McKenna, Professor of
Anthropology, has published many studies that provide evidence that
when mother and baby sleep together, the mother's breathing and
movement affect the baby's breathing and arousal patterns. Babies
get more practice at the transitions from one kind of breathing to
another. Also, mothers and their breastfed babies can then develop the
same sleep cycles which encourages less disruption to sleep for all.
Breastfeeding moms can't get any deep sleep anyway: Lactation women
are hormonally programmed not to have the fourth and deepest sleep
cycle, possibly to be able to tune in to the waking cycles of our
babies.So, how could we Americans cope with such a change in our cultural norm? A working mom or a stay-at-home mom may be asking, "I need my sleep. How will I function well?" Well, there are many alternatives to the usual sleeping arrangements that can make night nursing a lot easier.
Yes, there are cons to a family bed. It can be harder for mom to settle in due to squirming and diapers crinkling. It can create less privacy, making it harder to turn in later or get up earlier. A family bed can also create ongoing doubts such as "Am I doing the right thing?" or "When should it end?" Just remember, no matter what the sleeping arrangements are in your home, where mom and baby sleep is a personal, parenting decision that should be made based upon what is best for your baby, you and your family. Like the first of many parenting decisions, trust yourself when making whatever choice is best for you and your family. Remember, night waking for nourishment and comfort is often a biological need and not a choice to the infant. In the words of Dr. Sears, author of "Nighttime Parenting" and other books, "In the first few months, the infant's needs are the highest, but his ability to communicate those needs is the lowest." References: "Nighttime Parenting" Sears "Three in a Bed" Jackson "The Breastfeeding Answer Book" Mohrbacher and Stock "Mothering" magazine Nov/Dec 1998 Special thanks to Jo Matey Breastfeeding.com thanks Donna Sinnott for allowing us to reprint her article. This article originally appeared in Nursing Mother News, a publication of Nursing Mothers Alliance. Nursing Mothers Alliance is an all volunteer, non-profit organization that supports nursing mothers in the Philadelphia area and offers training courses. The group can be contacted at their warmline at (610) 251-9405 or email Donna Sinnott at corikyle@aol.com |
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