Co-sleeping and Babywearing
Tonight Annabelle and I showed some moms how to wrap their babies. Altogether TOO much fun! But somewhere amidst the flurry of fabric, co-sleeping came up.
A mom (Hi, Lee Anne!) wanted my take on co-sleeping. I told her how convenient it is, how cuddly, even how it contributes to ecological breastfeeding. But I felt like I hadn’t really put my finger on the importance of co-sleeping, and now that I’m home, I realize what I was missing.
Human babies are designed to be with an adult human constantly. Mostly the mother, for obvious reasons, but they need us for a lot more than sustenance. Their bodies grow stronger when they are being held, and likewise their emotional constitution. Their bodily functions are regulated by ours, learning rhythm, even remembering to breathe, by proximity to our more experienced lungs. Their muscles gain tone and balance by the stimulation of being held against our working muscles going about our daily tasks.
This is not mere fancy, on my part. Studies show miraculous interrelations between mothers and babies, from the mother’s bodily temperature adjusting in response to her baby’s need for temperature regulation, to the sensitivity gained from sleeping beside her tiny offspring.
Babies aren’t designed to be alone.
And so, many of the benefits of babywearing are shared by co-sleeping. Keeping your baby close means a happier, healthier, stronger, safer baby. It means a more relaxed, confident, peaceful, and fulfilled mother.
Lee Anne June 4, 2010 at 8:27 am
Diana,
Love it!
Thanks for posting…And, thank you SO much for the great conversation last night, answering all our questions. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more, and I’m glad we’re connected now so I can ask. 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Diana June 4, 2010 at 9:27 am
I’m glad to know you, too. Wish we were closer!
Renee March 24, 2011 at 8:29 pm
I’ve been reading your blog and love your posts, especially this one! I know this was written a while ago, but I wanted to comment anyway 🙂 I have a beautiful 8 week old who is exclusively breast feed, and I have a bassinet next to my bed for him. Of course, everyone asks if he’s sleeping through the night yet, and I say yes, he only wakes up twice at most, but just for a minute or so to wiggle around and alert me that he’s ready to eat. i latch him on and we go back to sleep. Everyone has asked me how I accomplished a baby sleeping through the night so easily (and he’s been doing this for weeks already) and I say, “I just keep him in my bed with me” and people are SHOCKED. It’s quite funny though, because most other moms with babies sheepishly admit that they too, have let their babies sleep in their bed, but they discourage it or they feel guilty about it. It’s crazy, and your post articulates why really well. Babies are meant to be with their mothers! It’s bizarre to me that everyone seems like they would prefer I keep my baby in a separate room, with an artificial heartbeat provided via sound machine.
Diana March 25, 2011 at 12:06 pm
I hear you completely! I think tons of families end up with baby in the bed out of desperation, and despite the fact that most of our babies are in our beds, the cultural myth persists that babies shouldn’t be in our beds, so all those parents don’t realize that all their friends are co-sleeping too! What a difference if we could take the shoulds and shouldn’ts out of parenting and let each family parent from the heart as you are!