Recent news stories and studies are pointing out that more and more North American families are adopting some form of Co-sleeping .... though it's all very hush hush. I've started a Poll (to the right) about family sleeping arrangements. Obviously the poll is limited in the amount of options I could add to it, lol. But please post your comments:
We want to hear about how YOU sleep with your family. Do you sleep share? Co-sleep? Full time or part time? Is your bedroom permanently set up for the family? (ie: mattress on the floor, or two beds pulled together?). How old are your children and how long did they sleep with you, if they did at all? Did you move your children into their own room, or did they make the decision themselves?...
Let's talk about it! Co-sleeping and sleep sharing needs to come out of the dark and into the light of mainstream parenting. So lets talk about our experiences so that others might see that THEIR experiences aren't something to hide or be ashamed of!!!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Sleeping: Babies Need Mom Beside Them
"Throughout human history, breast-feeding mothers sleeping alongside their infants constituted a marvelously adaptive system in which both the mothers' and infants' sleep physiology and health were connected in beneficial ways. By sleeping next to its mother, the infant receives protection, warmth, emotional reassurance, and breast milk - in just the forms and quantities that nature intended....HERE to read the entire article
...It is a curious fact that in Western societies the practice of mothers, fathers and infants sleeping together came to be thought of as strange, unhealthy and dangerous. Western parents are taught that "co-sleeping" will make the infant too dependent on them, or risk accidental suffocation. Such views are not supported by human experience worldwide, however, where for perhaps millions of years, infants as a matter of course slept next to at least one caregiver, usually the mother, in order to survive. At some point in recent history, infant separateness with low parental contact during the night came to be advocated by child care specialists, while infant-parent interdependence with high parental contact came to be discouraged. In fact, the few psychological studies which are available suggest that children who have "co-slept" in a loving and safe environment become better adjusted adults than those who were encouraged to sleep without parental contact or reassurance."
