Authoritative studies demonstrate that mother-baby co-sleeping is beneficial for newborns. Provided that the parents agree with it.
For our ancestors it was routine and in many parts of the world it is still a widespread habit: sleeping in the same bed of your kids or co-sleeping, or better, practicing bed-sharing, to say it in a more modern way.
If in the past, when only few people could afford a house with different rooms, sharing the bed with the offspring was obligatory; in more recent years this practice is not highly regarded, mostly in Western societies. Due to parental concerns of raising spoiled mummy’s children and worries for keeping parental privacy, co-sleeping has long been a not-to-be-proud-of emergency solution for those dead tired parents who are woken up by their babies during the night.
Co-sleeping, however, is increasingly becoming popular again among those conscious mothers who consider greater contact with their babies as a solution to provide them psychophysical benefits. According to a series of studies conducted by anthropologist James J. McKenna, director of the Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, on primates and human beings, mother-infant co-sleeping helps the babies to regulate a number of important body functions including cardiac and respiratory frequency, body temperature, digestion and growth rate.
Sharing the bed, in addition, can be protective when connected to breastfeeding and contributes to lower cortisol levels, the primary stress hormone. Many recent studies demonstrate that co-sleeping promotes the so-called parent-baby bonding. Sleeping together, hence, is not only an acceptable choice but a desirable one.
Those parents who want to share their bed with their child must follow a few fundamental rules: abstaining from smoke, drugs and alcohol, keeping their weight under control (co-sleeping is highly unrecommended in case of obesity or overweight), following the rules for the prevention of SIDS, the so-called cot death: cool temperature in the room, no bulky blankets near the baby, breastfeeding, dummy. Finally, those parents that are looking for a compromise can opt for a bed to be put on the side of the queen-size bed. In any case, remember that a universal recipe for children, parents and personal choices doesn’t exist.
To learn more about this practice you can consult the Safe Cosleeping Guidelines.
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