The Case for Co-Sleeping with Your Baby

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Every new parent wishes they were getting more sleep or better sleep. Co-sleeping can be advantageous for the mother, baby, and the rest of the family. I know I felt much more rested and had more energy for my other child, my house, and my husband when I was co-sleeping. There are many benefits to co-sleeping and some key safety tips as well.
When you consider how helpless babies are at birth co-sleeping just makes sense. Babies are biologically made to stay close to their mothers! They are predesigned to survive, grow, and thrive on human milk. Infants are also born with very tiny tummies that require frequent feedings. All of these needs are much easier to attend to if baby is sleeping next to his mother. Also, from an evolutionary perspective, across all mammals humans are born very helpless and mature slowly. Thousands of years ago a baby left to sleep alone was not likely to survive very long. Keep in mind co-sleeping is still done in many parts or the world, especially in eastern countries. The western movement to push babies to sleep alone and toward independence as a whole, I believe, is a sign of our shift from a collectivist culture to an individualist one.
There are many things said about co-sleeping to the general public. We have been warned that it is dangerous. We know babies die from SIDS and they have been looking high and low for a cause. Everyone seems to want a neat and tidy answer for what has happened to these babies and I understand why. I believe co-sleeping has been given a bad reputation because people need something to blame and not based on actual scientific evidence.
Dr. William Sears suggests that, “In those infants at risk for SIDS, natural mothering [unrestricted breastfeeding and sharing sleep...

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... help us to lengthen the duration. Our babies, our bodies and our families can reap the benefits of a happier and better rested mother-baby pair.

Works Cited
Christensen, Brittany. Personal Interview. 12 March 2014.
“Co-Sleeping Safety.” PhD in Parenting. n.p. 11 January 2009. Web. 31 March 2014.
George, Melissa. Personal Interview. 12 March 2014.
McKenna, James J. “Safe Cosleeping Guidelines.” Mother-Baby Behavioral Laboratory, University of Notre Dame. N.d. Web. 22 March 2014
McKenna, James J. Joyce, Edmund P. "Cosleeping and Biological Imperatives: Why Human Babies Do Not and Should Not Sleep Alone." Neuroanthropology.net. n.p. 21 December 2008. Web. 8 March 2014
Sears, William. Nighttime Parenting How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep. Franklin Park Illinois. Le Leche League International, 1990. Print.
Quattlebaum, Amy. Personal Interview. 17 March 2014.

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