Breastfeeding to sleep is normal!

Babies fall asleep at the breast. This is not a bad habit, it is part of the package! Breastmilk contains natural sleep-inducing hormones for just This reason!

All that putting baby down "drowsy but awake" has no evidence to support it. Trying to make it happen generally ends up with a cranky baby who would have settled into a nice, deep sleep but is now in a state of distress instead.

Breastfeeding is a sleep "prop", to use #sleeptraining language. Why there is an expectation of babies to fall asleep without any comfort is a hangover from the Victorian period when children were expected to be seen and not heard. This is the same time in history when one expert advised not to cuddle or kiss babies when a firm handshake was sufficient. This man probably spent half an hour a day with his children at bedtime, before Nanny shushed them and hurried them back to the nursery.

Humans need to feel safe and secure to fall asleep. In infancy, that means against their mother's body as they breastfeed. Not forever but certainly for this season of life. If and when other carers are settling them to sleep in mum's absence, they will use other ways - carrying, rocking, singing and shushing.

If you are not planning a #contactnap or #breastsleep at the time, allowing your baby to transition into the deeper sleep stage (approximately 20 minutes into the sleep cycle) then you can transfer them into their safe sleep space without disturbing them. You can then take a break for the rest of that sleep cycle ... and maybe the next one too, if you're lucky!