Every new parent wishes they were getting more sleep or better sleep. Co-sleeping can be advantageous for the mother, baby, and the rest of the family. I know I felt much more rested and had more energy for my other child, my house, and my husband when I was co-sleeping. There are many benefits to co-sleeping and some key safety tips as well.
When you consider how helpless babies are at birth co-sleeping just makes sense. Babies are biologically made to stay close to their mothers! They are predesigned to survive, grow, and thrive on human milk. Infants are also born with very tiny tummies that require frequent feedings. All of these needs are much easier to attend to if baby is sleeping next to his mother. Also, from an evolutionary perspective, across all mammals humans are born very helpless and mature slowly. Thousands of years ago a baby left to sleep alone was not likely to survive very long. Keep in mind co-sleeping is still done in many parts or the world, especially in eastern countries. The western movement to push babies to sleep alone and toward independence as a whole, I believe, is a sign of our shift from a collectivist culture to an individualist one.
There are many things said about co-sleeping to the general public. We have been warned that it is dangerous. We know babies die from SIDS and they have been looking high and low for a cause. Everyone seems to want a neat and tidy answer for what has happened to these babies and I understand why. I believe co-sleeping has been given a bad reputation because people need something to blame and not based on actual scientific evidence.
Dr. William Sears suggests that, “In those infants at risk for SIDS, natural mothering [unrestricted breastfeeding and sharing sleep...
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... help us to lengthen the duration. Our babies, our bodies and our families can reap the benefits of a happier and better rested mother-baby pair.
Works Cited
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McKenna, James J. “Safe Cosleeping Guidelines.” Mother-Baby Behavioral Laboratory, University of Notre Dame. N.d. Web. 22 March 2014
McKenna, James J. Joyce, Edmund P. "Cosleeping and Biological Imperatives: Why Human Babies Do Not and Should Not Sleep Alone." Neuroanthropology.net. n.p. 21 December 2008. Web. 8 March 2014
Sears, William. Nighttime Parenting How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep. Franklin Park Illinois. Le Leche League International, 1990. Print.
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Sara believed that it was important for the infant to establish a sense of security by sleeping in the same room as the parents early on, so that in the future when the child becomes old enough to sleep in a different room, the child will feel secure and be calm even when she is alone by knowing that her parents are just in the other room. One way to understand the link between Sara’s sleeping arrangements and her goal of making the infant feel more secure is to consider Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development (Erikson, 1963) The first stage of Erikson’s (1963) theory is trust versus mistrust, during which babies come to trust that their caregivers and other people will meet their physical and emotional needs or start to mistrust that the parents and other people will not take care of them. Sara hoped that by sleeping near her infant so that she could let her child see her when the child goes to sleep or wakes up in the middle of the night, the infant could feel more safe, or “trust,” that the infant’s needs would be tended to whenever necessary. The “trust” would then impact the child’s future development and especially when the time comes for the child to move to a separate room. The child, having received reliable
Another point of contention about co-sleeping is the age of the baby or child at which parents can allow them to share their bed. Again, with this matter, opinions differ, with some experts warning parents about the danger of suffocating their babies in bed while asleep. It has been reported that the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is higher for infants who sleep in an adult bed than in a crib. It is also estimated that about 100 infant deaths occur each year in the US due to parents accidentally laying over and suffocating their babies while sleeping. Oth...
Newborns do not contribute much to society at large. In fact, they do not do much in general. It is impossible to know the details of what goes on in an infant’s mind. One of the things we do know about newborns is that sleep is crucial and they spend an average of 16-18 hours each day sleeping (Ward, 2015). This paper will examine the experiences of one mother’s decisions in regard to sleeping arrangements and the values, both cultural and personal, that support these arrangements. It will also compare her decisions to the decisions of U.S. and Mayan mothers discussed in the research article “Cultural Variation in Infants’ Sleeping Arrangements: Questions of Independence.” The mother who was interviewed for this paper is 54 years old and
Numerous studies have been done to prove the abundant health benefits breastfeeding has not only for a baby, but for mothers as well. When a nursing mother develops a cold, those germs will pass through her breast milk to her baby along with the mother’s antibodies, which may decrease the baby’s risk of illness. Research has shown breastfeeding leads to a lower chance of developing allergies, a reduced risk of obesity, and a lesser chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Nursing mothers tend to lose their pregnancy weight sooner, and have lower risk of ovarian and breast cancer. It can also serve as a natural form of birth control if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding. The New Mother’s Guide to Breastfeeding elaborates on some of the psychological benefits of
Many people in the United States, view poor sleep to be an individual's choice instead of an affliction. The number of sleep disorders that are present today is over the top. "Insomnia affects 10 to 15% of the general population and is the most prevalent sleep problem" (Wells, et al 235). With the statistic: 45% of the world’s population is affected by sleep disorders (Noor, et al n.p.). It’s an eye opener to know 15% of the 45% is impaired by Insomni...
Newborn babies normally feed every few hours throughout the day and night and may therefore sleep a few hours then wake up again. Because of this, parents cannot begin training the newborn or impose a regular schedule for sleeping. One must quickly respond to the child's hungry cries and feed her to comfort her. Although you may also lose sleep because of of this, you can try napping whenever the baby sleeps to catch up with yur own sleep.
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Heilman, E. (2000). Rest for the Weary: Words from an Insomnia Expert. Retrieved March 21, 2005 from http://www.healthysleeping.com/
Specific purpose: To persuade my audience to take care of our sleep duration as it may affect our daily life.