Human Babies Are Not Meant to Sleep Alone
Dr James McKenna calls them “Stone age babies in a space age world”. Despite great advancement in science and technology in modern history, our bodies – and those of our babies – remain unchanged.
Infants are designed to be kept safe by their mother, day and night, close to her body. Predators, the environment and other factors make the world an unsafe place for an unprotected infant – today as much as in the past, babies around the world sleep safest alongside their mother. Sharing a sleep surface (bed-sharing) or within arms-reach (co-sleeping) are still the natural way for mothers and babies to spend the night.
When we look at breastfeeding as the normal way for babies to eat, we can then also look at their sleep patterns as the normal way to sleep. Research is clearly showing a link between bed-sharing and successful breastfeeding. In the UK, 70-80% of breastfeeding mothers also bed-share. Professor James J. McKenna found that babies aged 11-15 weeks who sleep within arms-reach of their mother breastfeed twice as often as those in their own sleep space. Rather than see this as down-side of either breastfeeding or co-sleeping, we can see that safe bed-sharing can support mothers to meet their breastfeeding goals and enable babies to establish and maintain milk production.
Room Sharing
Separating mothers and babies is now recognised as a SIDS risk. During the first six months, room sharing reduces the risk. The American Academy of Paediatrics now recommends room sharing for at least 6 months while other guidelines suggest the full 6-12 months.
It is important to note: it is not the ROOM which is protective, it is the PRESENCE of the mother-figure and relates to all sleep, day and night.
