The science of cosleeping

When Hubby and I were getting ready for Baby Boy's arrival, we built the crib in our room so he would be close for night feedings and such. Once we got him home, I realized that even getting out of bed to get the baby to feed him and put him back in the crib after was too much effort to be going through every hour or two all night. I wasn't planning on cosleeping; it just happened. 

Like most moms in the US, I'd heard about how dangerous cosleeping is for babies. But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to know the science behind this blanket statement that I should never fall asleep with baby. Lucky for me, I found a really interesting paper that summarized current research on just that topic. And what it said wasn't at all what I expected. (The whole article, Mother-Infant Cosleeping, Breastfeeding and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: What Biological Anthropology Has Discovered About Normal Infant Sleep and Pediatric Sleep Medicine by J.J. McKenna, H.L. Ball, and L.T. Gettler (2007) can be found here). If 24 pages from an anthropology journal is more than you'd care to read, here are some highlights:

Our (Western) society has an abnormal reliance on "expert advice" that leads people, in this case parents, to trust the advice of others above their own instincts. Research has shown that the rate of SIDS is much lower in cultures where moms and babies typically breastfeed and cosleep. 

A baby's whole world revolves around mom, specifically her ability to nourish him by providing breastmilk. There is a direct relationship between cosleeping and breastfeeding, specifically cosleeping moms and babies do more breastfeeding.

Separating mom and baby for sleep is more about our cultural desire for babies to become independent than what is best for baby. However, one study showed that children who sleep with their parents are less demanding of their parents' attention (read: more independent) while playing than children who don't.

Studies in other primates have shown that separating babies from their moms leads to all sorts of physical and emotional problems.

"Many researchers believe that arousal deficiency--the inability of an infant to arouse and breathe following an otherwise 'normal' breathing pause or apnea--may play an important role in SIDS." Moms and babies who cosleep are more sensitive to each other waking up and tend to experience less deep sleep, which is the stage of sleep when babies are most likely to have a pause in breathing. Being near mom's breathing may help stimulate baby's breathing and help prevent SIDS.

Even though, like me, most new moms don't plan on cosleeping, 70% of new parents do it at least occasionally. There are lots of reasons for cosleeping: it makes breastfeeding easier, it's enjoyable to spend time close to baby, it's comforting to keep baby close to keep an eye on his health and safety, it's easier to calm baby when he's fussy, etc. What's your favorite reason?