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Is
sleeping with my baby safe? Can it reduce the risk of SIDS?
by James J. McKenna, Ph.D. |
| Infants and parents
sleeping together or in proximity to one another is the way that
the nutritional, transportation, social-emotional, and thermal
needs of human infants continue to be met worldwide. This includes
Japan, where the rates of SIDS are the lowest in the world. In
most cultures, parent-infant contact is considered to be as
important during the night as it is during the day. In contrast,
the industrial western world's accepted model of
"normal" and "healthy" infant sleep assumes
that it is best for the infant to sleep in isolation with minimal
parental intervention. But infants were designed to sleep next to
their mothers for night-time breastfeeding, so solitary infant
sleep represents a novel, if not alien experience, for which not
all infants, we contend, are equally prepared. Our work challenges
western assumptions on "normal" infant sleep with the
hope of uncovering hidden environmental factors heretofore not
considered to be relevant to some types of SIDS.
We do not suggest that sleeping with an infant can prevent SIDS
or that it is perfectly safe. Indeed, where there are factors such
as drug use in the family, maternal smoking, and a lack of
knowledge about infant safety, co-sleeping might increase rather
than decrease dangers to the infant. However, the circumstances
mentioned above should not be confused with all co-sleeping
situations. The sensory exchange that co-sleeping provides an
infant, i.e., heat, sound, smell, touches, and movement, are
sensory stimuli that the infant is designed to respond to in a
positive way. Co-sleeping requires that specific precautions be
taken to assure infant safety; this should not be mistaken for an
argument against the potential benefits to infants, any more than
a concern for crib design safety has been an argument against an
infant sleeping alone.
With the generous support of the National Institutes of Child
and Human Development, Drs. Sarah Mosko, Christopher Richards and
I are presently exploring the effects of mother-infant pairs
sleeping apart and together over successive nights in a sleep
laboratory. Our studies show that while co-sleeping, infants
breastfeed more frequently and for longer total duration; they
have more arousals, many of which are induced by the mother's
movements or sounds, and that the infants spend less time in the
deep stage of sleep from which some infants have difficulty
arousing (apnea). We have been impressed with both the
mother's and infant's acute responsiveness to the other's
activities, all of which seem to change the infant's physiology in
ways that look potentially helpful in resisting a SIDS event,
although we cannot prove this at this time.
In answer to the question, "Is it safe to sleep with your
baby?", under most circumstances, co-sleeping is likely to be
very safe and beneficial; but it depends on how it is done. If the
parent(s) smoke or take drugs, co-sleeping is risky. Sleeping with
an infant on a waterbed, couch, soft bed, or any bed that has gaps
or ledges into which the infant can fall, can be risky for the
infant. It is more ideal to sleep on a firm mattress, and to limit
the use of pillows and blankets.
With regard to the second question, we do not yet know if
co-sleeping can reduce the risk of SIDS. It is clear that our
research is yielding important insights into the limitations of
defining the species-wide co-sleeping arrangement as
"abnormal" while labeling the culturally recent
preference for solitary infant sleeping as "normal" and
always "healthy". We hope someday to be able to use our
data to contemplate new models of healthy infant sleep to serve as
a scientific beginning to help combat SIDS. |
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| Dr. James J. McKenna
is a Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Center for
Behavioral Studies of Mother-Infant Sleep, Notre Dame University.
Reprinted with permission of the author from Horizons,
Vol. 1, No. 4, Spring/Summer 1995, California SIDS Program. |
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