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CoSleeping
(It will make you an
Undercover Mother!)
Cosleeping is the cultural norm for
approximately 90% of the world's population (Young, 1998).
Got sleep? Wanna stay sane? Eschew sleep deprivation and
meet your child's needs at the same time you meet yours! Share sleep while
breastfeeding! Breastfeeding releases oxytocin, the love hormone, and lowers
cortisol, the stress hormone. Hormones in human milk make babies sleepy too!
Cosleeping and breastfeeding... aaahhhh, now that's what I call relaxation!
Get into the natural rhythym that mothers and babies have enjoyed for centuries!
Online Resources for more information:
Dr. Sears
Katherine Dettwyler
James McKenna
articles
See also: Notre Dame / McKenna
Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory
Tine Thevenin articles
What Babies Want with Noah Wylie
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Safety:
Cosleeping
safety tips:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070600.asp#T070601
Excerpts from
Dr. Sears
"In most countries around the world sleeping with your
baby is the norm, not the exception. And what is the incidence of SIDS in these
countries? During the 1990s, in Japan the rate was only one tenth of the U.S.
rate, and in Hong Kong, it was only 3% of the U.S. rate. These are just two
examples. Some countries do have a higher rate of SIDS, depending on how SIDS is
defined.
Until a legitimate survey is done to determine how many
babies sleep with their parents, and this is factored into the rate of SIDS in a
bed versus a crib, it is unwarranted to state that sleeping in a crib is safer
than a bed.
If the incidence of SIDS is dramatically higher in crib
versus a parent's bed, and because the cases of accidental smothering and
entrapment are only 1.5% of the total SIDS cases, then sleeping with a baby in
your bed would be far safer than putting baby in a crib.
The question shouldn't be "is it safe to sleep with my
baby?", but rather "how can I sleep with my baby safely." The data on the
incidence of SIDS in a bed versus a crib must be examined before the medical
community can make a judgment on sleep safety in a bed."
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EMOTIONAL BENEFITS
James
McKenna:
"Why a Baby Should Never Sleep Alone"
"Children who ‘never’ slept in their parents’ bed show
a trend toward them being rated ‘harder to control,’ ‘less happy,’ less
innovative and less able to be alone and in several studies they exhibit a
greater number of tantrums. Children who were never permitted to bedshare were
actually more fearful than children who always slept in their parents’ bed, for
all of the night, a finding that is exactly the opposite of what is popularly
understood.
...Forbes et al. found that co-sleeping
children on US military bases received better comportment scores from their
teachers, were engaged in more social activities and, compared with children who
never slept in their parents' bed when one partner went off for assignment,
cosleeping children were under-represented in the psychiatric care population.
...Male college students who had co-slept
with their parents between birth and 5 years of age had significantly higher
self-esteem, experienced less guilt and anxiety and reported greater frequency
of sex. Boys who co-slept between 6 and 11 years of age also had higher self
esteem.
...For women, co-sleeping during childhood
was associated with less discomfort about physical contact and affection as
adults.
...Crawford found that women who co-slept
as children had higher self esteem than those who did not.
...In the largest systematic study
to date, conducted in 1400 subjects in Chicago and New York, there were more
positive adult outcomes for individuals who coslept as a child, among almost all
ethnic groups (African-Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York, Puerto Ricans,
Dominicans and Mexicans in Chicago). An especially robust finding was that
co-sleepers exhibited a feeling of satisfaction with life."
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More Excerpts and
thoughts on Cosleeping:
Tine Thevenin:
"Need v. Habit"
"...The wants of a well-adjusted human being are his
needs. It is when his needs are not fulfilled that his wants become excessive in
the attempt to fulfill suppressed needs.
...A child who has his needs fulfilled will become an
independent, secure person. But independence cannot be forced upon someone. It
takes time and growing at the individual's own pace. The more secure he is in
the knowledge that he can always come back to his parents, the more independent
he will become. We will only create problems if we regard his needing us at
night as a problem which should be "cured."
...The child's sleeping in the parental bed should not
be regarded as a privilege, nor restricted for the fear of its becoming a habit.
Rather it should be considered the necessary fulfillment of a basic human need."
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Tami E. Breazeale: Excerpts
from
http://www.visi.com/~jlb/thesis/cosleep.html
Physical Safety:
In May 1999, the Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC]
released a warning against cosleeping or putting babies to sleep on adult beds
that was based on a study of death reports of children under the age of two who
had died from 1980 to 1997. Among the 2,178 deaths by unintentional
strangulation in the Commission's study were 180 young children who had died
from being overlain on a sofa or bed. In another analysis of CPSC data it was
found that of 515 deaths in an adult bed, 121 of these were the result of
overlying and 394 children died as a result of entrapment in the structure of
the bed (Heinig, 2000). The CPSC statistics resulted in a media frenzy
discouraging cosleeping which, instead of educating the public on how to share
sleep safely, chose to alarm parents. Neither media announcement mentioned the
2,700 infants that died in the final year of that study of Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome [SIDS], formerly called "crib death"; the vast majority of those
infants died alone in their cribs (Seabrook, 1999). Meanwhile, it is interesting
to note that the CPSC media announcements did not release data regarding risk
factors other than sleeping location, such as whether the overlying adult was
under the influence of alcohol or drugs or whether the sleeping surface was
appropriate; 79 of the 515 deaths occurred on waterbeds (Seabrook, 1999).
Parents must observe safety guidelines for cosleeping, just as they would for
picking out a crib.
Safety while cosleeping is of utmost importance. Parents should take very
seriously the importance of providing their babies with a safe sleeping
environment. There are many guidelines, most of which are common sense (Sears,
1995b; Thevenin, 1987).
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SIDS and Cosleeping
...Preliminary findings of cosleeping research
indicated that cosleeping mothers and infants had a significantly higher levels
of partner-influenced arousal overlap and synchronous sleep patterns. Since
there is a suspected relationship between arousal deficits in infants and some
deaths from SIDS (McKenna et al., 1993; Sears, 1995b), McKenna's hypothesis that
the influence of cosleeping on the infant's respiratory patterns, central
nervous system, and cardiovascular systems may have a protective effect seems
quite valid.
...Intriguingly, in a 1994 study in the United Kingdom
of physiological development, infant sleeping, and SIDS risk in Asian infants,
Petersen and Wailoo found that although the Asian babies had several increased
physiological risk factors for SIDS, the SIDS rate is much lower in this
population. The authors note that perhaps this is due to
the increased
stimulation the infants receive as a result of Asian infant care practices.
These practices include cosleeping, carrying, and other activities which involve
the child more in household life (Petersen & Wailoo, 1994).
SIDS rates in Asian
countries, where cosleeping is often the norm, are significantly lower than
those in western society (Thevenin, 1987).
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Preconceptions versus
Reality:
Ball, Hooker, and Kelly (1999) conducted a study in the
United Kingdom to determine a baseline of nonreactive cosleeping among British
parents. It was believed that although cosleeping is not part of the mainstream
of parenting ideology in Britain or America, and although the literature in the
field is a mess of reactive and cross-cultural juxtapositions, this study would
open the door to a valid discussion of the attitudes and practices of nighttime
parenting. The study was conducted by enlisting expectant parents in an
economically depressed community in Northern England. Parents were interviewed
about expectations of infant care practices prior to the birth and then about
actual infant care practices when the baby was expected to be two to four months
old. Forty families completed both interviews. Both new and experienced parents
were interviewed. None of the new parents anticipated cosleeping with the child
although 70% of them actually did end up cosleeping with their infants at least
occasionally. Mothers being interviewed following the births frequently cited
the ease of breastfeeding while lying down in bed and the ease of caring for the
child while cosleeping. Not surprisingly the experienced parents were more
realistic in their expectations, with 35% anticipating cosleeping and 59%
actually participating in cosleeping. The vast majority of the first-time
mothers who coslept and all of the experienced mothers who coslept, were also
breastfeeding their infants. The study revealed that despite preconceptions of
cosleeping as a dangerous and rare practice, these mainstream British parents
consider it an effective infant care technique and commonly engage in it.
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Reactive Cosleeping
Versus Cosleeping as a Custom
Solitary infant sleeping is a principally western
practice which is quite young in terms of human history. The practice of
training children to sleep alone through the night is approximately two
centuries old. Prior to the late 1700s cosleeping was the norm in all societies
(Davies, 1995). Today in many cultures the practice of cosleeping continues,
with babies seen as natural extensions of their mothers for the first one or two
years of life, spending both waking and sleeping hours by her side.
Cosleeping
is taken for granted in such cultures as best for both babies and mothers, and
the western pattern of placing small infants alone in rooms of their own is seen
as aberrant (Thevenin, 1987). Comprehensive studies of western nonreactive
cosleeping, defined as family cosleeping from birth as a custom, rather than as
the result of childhood sleep disturbances, are not yet available. However
medical and anthropological evidence suggests the western movement to solitary
infant sleeping in the past two centuries may have consequences in the areas of
attachment security and physical safety.
...In a 1992 study of soft object and pacifier
attachments in children (Lehman, Denham, Moser, & Reeves) 40% of children with
dual soft object and pacifier attachments, and 80% of children with attachments
to pacifiers alone were rated as having an insecure attachment relationship with
their mothers by 19 months. Attachment benefits of cosleeping are not limited to
mother and child; fathers also report enjoying additional time to bond with the
baby as a direct result of sharing a sleeping area (Davies, 1995; Seabrook,
1999; Thevenin, 1987). Fathers who share the family bed are likely to experience
less disturbed sleep, because babies do not have to awake fully and cry to get
their needs met.
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