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Sleeping in the Same Bed
The Breastfeeding Co-sleeping Connection
By Gwen Morrison
Many specialists support the idea of co-sleeping during breastfeeding. Though it is a personal choice for parents, it is definitely one that can help promote restfulness for the mother while providing necessary nourishment for the infant.
Dr. James McKenna, professor of anthropology and director of the Mother-and-Baby Sleep Lab at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind., pioneered the first behavioral and electro-physiological studies documenting differences between mothers and infants sleeping together and apart (in different rooms). He is known worldwide for his work in promoting studies of breastfeeding and mother-infant co-sleeping.
"First and foremost, co-sleeping is beneficial because it is what mothers and babies are supposed to do – what they have been biologically designed to do – as maternal proximity is expected by the baby's body," McKenna explains. "Clinically, from scientific studies, a co-sleeping baby sleeps longer, cries less, breastfeeds more, sleeps more lightly (in stages 1 and 2) and spends less time in a more mature stage of sleep ..."
McKenna points out that his studies have proven that while it is true that breast-fed, bed-sharing babies awake and feed more regularly, Mother and Baby actually get more sleep this way. This is true because the co-sleeping baby does not really awaken for long periods of time during and after the feed, compared with the solitary-sleeping, breast-fed baby who often fails to settle after he is fed, keeping Mother out of bed longer.
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