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The Family Bed
Co-sleeping essentially means sleeping in close proximity to your
child. It may be in the same bed or just in the same room. Some
ways of co-sleeping that different families use are:
- Family
Bed:
Parent(s) sleep in the same bed with the child.
- Sidecar
arrangement:
Securely attach a crib to one side of the parents' bed, next to
the mother. Three sides of the baby's crib are left intact, but
the side next to the parents' bed is lowered or removed so that
mother and baby have easy access to one another.
- Different
beds in the same room:
This might include having baby's bassinet or crib within arm reach
of the parents (easier at night) or just in the same room; or
fixing a pallet or bed for an older child on the floor next to,
or at the foot of, the parents' bed.
- Child
welcomed into parents' bed as needed:
The baby/child has her own bedroom, but is welcomed into the parents'
bed at any time. In many families, children start their overnight
hours in a separate bed or room, but are welcomed into the parents'
bed after a night waking.
- We have very rarely lost sleep due to a fussing or crying baby
(like everyone told us we would).
- Our babies don't lose sleep, either. Baby stirs and almost wakes
up when she needs to nurse, but since she is right beside me I
am able to nurse or soothe her back to sleep before she fully
wakes up.
- No nighttime separation anxiety.
- No bedtime hassles.
- Ease of breastfeeding during the night.
- Nursing at night helps to maintain your milk supply.
- Night nursing also tends to prolong the child-spacing effects
of breastfeeding.
- Some studies have suggested that co-sleeping helps to protect
against SIDS.
- Waking up next to a smiling baby.
Excerpts from a LLLI
press release from September 30, 1999:
Studies
have shown that co-sleeping with a breastfeeding infant promotes
bonding, regulates the mother and baby's sleep patterns, plays
a role in helping the mother to become more responsive to her
baby's cues, and gives both the mother and baby needed rest. The
co-sleeping environment also assists mothers in the continuation
of breastfeeding on demand, an important step in maintaining mom's
milk supply.
Dr. James
McKenna, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre
Dame, a member of LLLI's Health Advisory Council, and an expert
on the subject of co-sleeping, believes there to be more danger
in leaving an infant alone in a crib than in arranging a safe
co-sleeping environment. He states, "We agree... that special
precautions need to be taken to minimize catastrophic accidents.
However, the need for such precautions is no more an argument
against all co-sleeping and, specifically bedsharing, than is
the reality of infants accidentally strangling, suffocating, or
dying from SIDS alone in cribs, a reason to recommend against
all solitary, unsupervised infant sleep." He adds, "While specific
structural hazards of an adult bed are important, the fact that
they exist means neither that they cannot be eliminated nor that
all bedsharing is unsafe."
General Safety
Guidelines --
- Parents should not sleep with their babies if they are smokers
or have ingested alcohol or drugs.
- Bedding should be tight fitting to the mattress.
- The mattress should be tight fitting to the headboard of the
bed.
- There should not be any loose pillows or soft blankets near
the baby's face.
- There should not be any space between the bed and adjoining
wall where the baby could roll and become trapped.
- The baby should not be placed on his stomach.
- Some sources also say not to put a baby on a waterbed to sleep.
You might hear that breastfeeding your baby in a lying down position
will cause ear infections. Research indicates that this is not
true. Also, keep in mind that with most nursing positions,
baby is lying down while nursing anyway - whether mom is or not!
People who are uncomfortable with the idea of co-sleeping often
suggest that co-sleeping is "less healthy" than the child
sleeping alone and will cause psychological damage to the child,
cause baby to become too dependent on the parents, etc. Dr. James
McKenna counters these suggestions:
In part, this
view represents a personal and arbitrary judgment that anyone
is entitled to make as long as it is not passed on as scientific
fact. Such judgments are based on Western values favoring the
perception of how individualism and infant autonomy are best promoted
and obtained. No study has shown, however, that the goals for
separateness and independence (or happiness, for that matter)
are obtained in the individual by, among other things, separate
sleeping arrangements for parents and children, nor do any studies
demonstrate negative consequences for children or parents who
choose to cosleep for ideological or emotional purposes, except
when cosleeping is part of a larger psychologically disordered
set of family relationships or when cosleeping occurs under dangerous
social or physical circumstances. The only studies of the psychological
or social effects of cosleeping reveal not negative but positive
consequences. One study among military families revealed that
cosleeping children receive higher evaluations of their comportment
from their teachers than do solitary sleeping children and are
under-represented among psychiatric populations, when compared
with children who do not cosleep [Forbes JF, Weiss DS: The cosleeping
habits of military children. Mil Med 1992; 157:196-200].
Lewis and Janda found that college-age students who coslept as
children were better adjusted and more satisfied with their sexual
identities and behavior than college-age students who did not
cosleep [Lewis RJ, Janda H: The relationship between adult sexual
adjustment and childhood experience regarding exposure to nudity,
sleeping in the parental bed, and parental attitudes towards sexuality.
Arch Sex Behav 1988; 17:349-363] . Clearly, we need to
change our conceptualization concerning what constitutes a normal
or healthy childhood sleep pattern!
-- From: Stein MT, et al. Cosleeping (Bedsharing) Among Infants
and Toddlers. Pediatrics 2001 Apr; 107(4); 873-877
See also: What
are the long term effects on my baby of sharing a bed? by Dr.
James McKenna
FAQ
about Co-sleeping by James J. McKenna, Ph.D.
Rooming-in
at the Hospital: Assessing the Practical Considerations by Martin
Ward-Platt and Helen L. Ball, from Mothering, Issue 114 September/October
2002.
Excerpts
from the book Good Nights - The Happy Parents' Guide to the Family
Bed (and a Peaceful Night's Sleep!) 
How
to make sleep sharing work from BabyCenter.com, with input from
James McKenna, PhD
Co-sleeping:
Yes, No, Sometimes? by William Sears, MD
To
Sleep or Not to Sleep: That is the Question by Donna Sinnott
How to set up a side car crib by Lish
Sleep
& Family Bed articles from Mothering.com
Sleep
& Family Bed Articles at The Natural Child Project
James
McKenna Library at The Natural Child Project
Tine
Thevenin Library (author of "The Family Bed") at The Natural
Child Project.
Co-sleeping
articles from www.wearsthebaby.com
Responding to criticism @
is
written about breastfeeding, but can be applied to any other parenting
choice that draws criticism from others. Some of the links included
are directly geared toward co-sleeping.
Somebody's
been sleeping in my bed! by Amy Spangler, from Amy Spangler's
Feeding Times, December 2004.
Ten
Reasons to Sleep Next to Your Child at Night by Jan Hunt at
The Natural Child Project
Sleep
With Me: A Trans-Cultural Look at the Power – and Protection
– of Sharing a Bed by Meredith F. Small, from Mothering magazine,
Nov/Dec 1998"
The
Family Bed: An Expert's Opinion by David Servan-Schreiber,
MD, Ph.D.
The
Family Bed: An Evolutionary Approach to Family Sleep by Katie
Allison Granju
Sleeping
Through the Night by Katherine Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Go
Ahead -- Sleep With Your Kids by Robert Wright
Annals
of Parenthood: Sleeping with the Baby - Which Side of the Bed Are
You On? The Author and His Wife Defied the Experts by John Seabrook.
This article is reprinted from an article first published in the
Nov. 8, 1999 issue of the New Yorker Magazine, and includes
the interview with Dr. Richard Ferber where he said
"...There's
plenty of examples of co-sleeping where it works out just fine.
My feeling now is that children can sleep with or without their
parents. What's really important is that the parents work out
what they want to do."
Research and discussion of research
Mother-and-Baby
Behavioural Sleep Laboratory
Professor James J. McKenna's area at the University of Notre
Dame website. Dr. McKenna is best known for his pioneering studies
of the differences between the physiology and behavior of solitary
and co-sleeping mothers an infants-and the connection these data
might have in addressing SIDS risks. He is a Professor at the University
of Notre Dame and runs the University of Notre Dame Mother-Baby
Behavioral Sleep Laboratory.
Parent-Infant
Sleep Lab, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham,
UK. The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab is the home for a team of researchers
led by Dr Helen L. Ball
who are examining various aspects of infant sleep and night-time
parenting. Their website includes research papers, project descriptions,
presentations and other resources.
UNICEF
statement on mother-infant bed sharing (16 February 2004) from
the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative
McKenna JJ, McDade T. Why
babies should never sleep alone: a review of the co-sleeping controversy
in relation to SIDS, bedsharing and breast feeding. Paediatr
Respir Rev. 2005 Jun;6(2):134-52.
Okami P, Weisner T, Olmstead R. Outcome
correlates of parent-child bedsharing: an eighteen-year longitudinal
study. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2002 Aug;23(4):244-53.
Baby
bedsharing fears dismissed. Discussion of the above Okami study
from BBC News.
Co-Sleeping
Information and Research from Attachment Parenting International
Sharing
sleep safely: What you need to know by James McKenna, PhD (here's
a similar article from Dr. McKenna's website: Guidelines
to Sleeping Safe with Infants) This article talks about safe
sleep sharing, advantages of sharing sleep, finding a good sleeping
arrangement for your family, sleeping through the night and long-term
effects of co-sleeping.
UNICEF
statement on mother-infant bed sharing (16 February 2004)
Babies
sharing their mothers' beds while in hospital: a sample policy
[PDF] from the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly
Initiative
Guideline
on Co-Sleeping and Breastfeeding, Clinical Protocol Number 6
from the Academy for Breastfeeding Medicine
Attachment
Parenting International's response to the CPSC
The
Family Bed: It's Safe and Here's Why from Mothering magazine
It's
None of Their Business by Peggy O'Mara (an editorial in the
CPSC report)
The
New Zealand Experience: How Smoking Affects SIDS Rates by Barry
Taylor, Sally Baddock, Rodney Ford, Ed Mitchell, David Tipene-Leach,
and Barbara Galland, from Mothering magazine (Issue 114,
September/October 2002)
Page last modified:
02/03/2008
Written: 05/27/1998
