| Historically and instinctively, most mothers would feel a strong desire to sleep very near to their baby, at least until they are past any "danger" age, or can sleep right through the night without attention. But today in our culture, most parents have the luxury of choice when it comes to available family sleeping options, unlike about 80% of the world's population who live in one or two room accommodation. And yet, I believe, where finances and space allow it, the most popular Australian domestic set up is a separate room for a baby, not far away from the parent's. Certainly this is the predominant aspiration. With technology such as the portable intercom, parents now feel free to go about their home life with complete flexibility, often in isolation from their sleeping children.
This move away from the traditional close-sleeping preferences no doubt has its roots in sociological factors such as working mothers needing to sleep, and many fathers today agreeing to share in some of the duties of nurturing. The options of expressed and formula bottle feeding have also allowed new possibilities in sleeping options, plus a greater expectation that the baby can be made to sleep through the night at the will of the parents. There are many opinions and options when it comes to sleeping quarters for babies and their parents. Some of these are conceived more from the parents' points of view, and some consider more the baby's needs. Own Room
Some couples, judging that one person's broken sleep is better than two, agree that the women takes full responsibility for all the night activities. They therefore set up the baby in another room where the light can be turned on and matters attended to without disturbing the man. If the parents share a bed this coming and going may still disturb the partner. This option requires either very light sleep and astute hearing by the mother or else the use of an intercom between rooms, which may well wake everyone else in that room anyway when the crying starts.
· Some parents share the night interruptions. The father may get up to change and feed the baby with a bottle of expressed or formula milk. I don't really think this is a terribly satisfactory set up (irrespective of the milk or bottle factor) because it assumes (i) that the child's only need for waking is milk or (ii) that the
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father can always comfort the child when, through instinct, the mother and child may still be concerned about each other. What may start off as a cry that father thinks he can satisfy may often turn into a longer session where the mother needs to become involved. This option can therefore double the disturbed sleep. Co-Sleeping
Co-sleeping is an arrangement whereby the baby shares his mother's (or both parent's) bed. This is the usual arrangement (well, only option really) in many societies. In very cold places, a sleeping platform is built that can be heated from underneath and all members of the family sleep together for warmth. In the hotter climates, bedding is usually airy mats or mattresses on the floor in the one sleeping room of the house. For many of the children in the cultures, the graduation from their mother's bed is into a bed with other siblings.
Apart from the heat and space saving factors, co-sleeping is said to have the advantages of deeper bonding, closer nurturing and better security for the child, as well as being most convenient for the mother and child to just roll together and breastfeed.
The are several disadvantages and controver-sial issues surrounding co-sleeping. Firstly I would think that in our culture, where we are used to having our own beds and our own rooms usually from birth up to adulthood, that for most people, co-sleeping would reduce the quality of sleep for all bed-sharers due to the movement and noise of 2 or 3 people.
In some studies, co-sleeping has been found to be a contributing factor to SIDS, but in most instances the parents were found to be consumers of drugs or alcohol (which reduced their nocturnal awareness), or heavy cigarette smokers (passive smoking has been found to be a major cause of SIDS)(35)(36).
Whilst it is rare for a mother to actually roll onto her baby and smother it, it has been shown that overheating can contribute to infant death. I consider that each person has a need for their own temperature regulation during the night, babies included, except that up until about 12 months, they do not have a fully self-regulated body temperature. The solution here is not to impose the mother's body and bed temperature upon the child, but to insulate and stabilise their body temperature with appropriate clothing, bedding and room temperature.
If you are considering co-sleeping for its benefits of intimacy, make sure your bed is large enough and firm enough to allow everyone to sleep in peace. This is |
