Normalising Breastsleeping

#breastsleeping

Dr. James J. McKenna is a professor of anthropology and the director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. He is a world-renowned expert on infant sleep -- particularly the practice of bed sharing in relation to breastfeeding.

He explains in his new book "Safe Infant Sleep: Expert answers to your cosleeping questions ":

"Breastsleeping is a term recently coined by myself and my colleague, Dr. Lee T. Gettler. It refers to a specific kind of bedsharing between a breastfeeding mother and infant, occurring in an environment free from proven risk factors. It is the safest form of bedsharing, practiced worldwide for all of human history."

Separating infant feeding and infant sleep is quite possibly the root cause of so many modern problems surrounding the two. The expectation that night feeding is an inconvenience to be tolerated in the very early days of infancy, but needs to be eliminated as soon as possible has no evidence to support it - and a great deal to debunk it.

It makes no sense that babies who are growing 24 hours a day would suspend refuelling for half of those hours. And while physical growth slows down in the second six months, brain development goes through the roof! Then the second year brings the mobility and verbal development which sets humans apart. Why would they reduce breastfeeding at night, when they are so busy during the day?

Infants feed around the clock.

This is the reality. It is time we stood up to those who deny it, and claim it is a behavioural habit which children can be trained out of.

Night time breastfeeding is optimal for milk production and infant growth. Breastsleeping allows mothers to attend to their child with minimal interruption to their own sleep.

#breastfeeding #breastsleeping #cosleeping #bedsharing #normalisebreastsleeping