Research Paper On Co-Sleeping

Sleeping with a baby seemed normal to me. I never thought about dangers or how it could go wrong. Right now I have 5 nephews, and each of them I know their mother ended up sleeping in the same bed, or on the couch with them, when they were breastfeeding. Even when I baby sat, I would sometimes fall asleep with them in my arms when they were young. There are many different views on co-sleeping, and the detriment/ benefits of it. Co-sleeping is defined as a parent and baby share a bed, according to the March of Dimes. There are obvious reasons why sleeping with your baby could result badly: getting trapped by the bed frame, falling off the bed, being smothered by blankets, or getting rolled on (March of Dimes, 1). But a big question that arose
was: Is co-sleeping related to SIDS?
SIDS is sudden infant death syndrome, and according to March of Dimes, about half of all SIDS death happen when a baby shares a bed.
But there are many studies that show differently. In the Current Pediatric Review, 2010, Getter and McKenna explain how co-sleeping can reduce the risk of SIDS, ”it influences the infant’s sleep architecture and arousals in beneficial ways and/or the simultaneous opportunity for the caregiver to monitor, detect and respond to infant’s needs, endangerments, or physiological crises” (Gettler and Mckenna, 72). This explains how being in the same room as your baby makes it easier to respond to anything harming your baby. When looking at both sides of the argument, I agree with Gettler and Mckenna. They did not try to scare parents into not sleeping with their baby, but instead understood people will do it no matter what and gave benefits, and alternative ways to co-sleep, such as “roomsharing”. No one is completely sure what causes SIDS and I feel organizations are just using it as a scare tactic to get the mothers to stop sleeping with their baby. I believe these organizations need to look at both sides of the situation and understand why mothers do sleep with their
babies.
People believe co-sleeping and breastfeeding are interdependent, “ the closer the mother sleeps to the baby during the night the more the number of breastfeeding...and, finally, compared with non-bedsharing, breastfeeding mothers bedsharing-breastfeeding mothers breastfeed their infants for a greater number of months” (Gettler and Mckenna, 72).
In Sarah Kerrigan’s, Its time to Rethink Co-sleeping she listens to a mother, “’There is no way I would have had the energy to get out of bed 3-5 times per night to go feed [my baby] in another room’ says lee” (Kerrigan, 1). Which would result in the baby getting feed not as much as it could if they were in the same room. All these articles bring up a good point, if you smoke in bed, take medication, or are overly exhausted you should not fall asleep with your baby because it could result in harm. Which is completely understandable, and changed my point of
view. I was completely ignorant to the risks of sleeping with a baby, I remember when one of my nephews was very young, and I was babysitting. My mom so worried I’d “step on him”. I laughed it off by sending her a funny picture of my nephew laying on the ground and my foot hovering over him. I didn’t think much of it and although this was a joke these are real risks that have happened before. So, when talking about co-sleeping, I believe you don’t realize the risks until it happens to you; until your baby falls off the bed or is getting smothered by your blankets and pillows.
After reading all these articles I think the smartest way to co-sleep is roomsharing. Having the baby’s crib right near your bed so, if you are breastfeeding it is easy to sit up in bed and feed, whenever the baby is hungry throughout the night. This also eliminates the risk of smothering or falling off the bed. But you are also close enough to cater to your baby throughout the night.
I’ve always thought that when people have said that you shouldn’t sleep with your baby, they were just overreacting and being overly cautious. Before reading these articles, I never took into account the reasons sleeping with your baby could be harmful. After reading these articles, it has help open my eyes to the issues, and has prepared me for the future if I ever choose to have a baby of my own, or gain another nephew.