Bed Sharing with the Baby: a Mother’s Experience

Know How the Bed Sharing Can Help a Mother and Her Baby

We all know that babies and sleep pretty much go hand in hand. From the moment your child arrives in this world, everyone asks about how they sleep. Parents need sleep too but babies always need around the clock care. So, how can everyone’s need for sleep be met?  Babies are meant to eat often and they feel secure around their mother. This design means that they need care and attention, even during the night time yet the mothers who are extremely sleep deprived are more prone to postnatal mood disorders. The bed sharing or co-sleeping with a child means sleeping in an adjacent proximity to him or her. This does not necessarily mean you have to sleep with your baby in the same bed; it can be like, you two are sleeping in the same room. Whatever it is, be it same bad or same room, many parents always seem to do this with their baby for the security purpose and for various other reasons. When the mother and her baby are close, they sleep more soundly. You don’t need to get out of your bed and cuddle your baby or to feed him etc. For many mothers and their babies, co-sleeping is the best solution to reduce sleep deprivation while still meeting all of the baby’s nighttime needs. However, there are some parents who hesitate to sleep with baby during their adolescences. So, in order to eradicate the hesitation here is the list of benefits that can be gained from co-sleeping with a baby.

Baby Will Remain Protected

Being a mother of a child, you are the safest and most adorable one to your newborn. There is no one in this entire world who can provide him or her, the required protection and feeling of safeness.

• Sleeping Close With Mothers: Babies and their mother share a deeply physiological connection. Babies who sleep close to their mother enjoy protective arousal; a state of sleep that enables them to more easily awaken if their heart is in danger such as breathing difficulties. If they sleep close to you, they will also have more stable temperatures, stable heart rhythms, having fewer long pauses in breathing compared to babies who sleep alone.
• Mother Can React To Their Baby’s Reaction Quickly: On the flip side, mothers are deeply tunes in their babies, often to the point where sleep cycles are synchronized so closely that they will naturally transition within a few seconds of each other. If something happens then the mother will react quickly on baby’s behalf.
• Emotional Attachment: Sleeping with your baby will help you develop an emotional attachment to your baby that will make your baby feel secure and cared for.  Children with a secure attachment often respond appropriately to situations, show minimum distress when their mother leaves and become happy when their mother returns. Co-sleeping helps to foster attachment because the mother and its baby closeness release the love hormone oxytocin which plays a big role in attachment.
• Enhances Baby’s Security: Co-sleeping also helps in responding quickly to baby’s need and which helps them to learn that you are always there to meet his needs. While it is completely possible to develop an attachment without co-sleeping, but you will get an opportunity for closeness. By sleeping with your baby in the same room or in the same bed you can enhance his security.

Breastfeeding Will Become Easier

Being a baby of few months, a child needs breastfeeding then and now. Bed sharing babies nurse about twice as often as those who sleep alone, which is beneficial for sleeping mothers to maintain their supply of milk, suppressing ovulation and helping a baby who is on the small side gain weight.

• No Getting Up Again And Again: The best part of bed sharing is that you don’t have to get up time and again to nurse your baby. As someone who has breastfed while bed sharing and gotten up to nurse a baby throughout the night, one can definitely say that getting up to breastfeed throughout the night is far more exhausting.
• Reducing Risk Of Overheating: If your baby is six months or younger, he or she can sleep in a Moses basket, crib or cot, next to your bed. This will reduce the risk of your baby overheating sleeping under your duvet or bedspread. Overheating increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
• Do Not Co-Sleep If You Have A Drinking Partner: Keep in mind that you should never co-sleep with your baby if you or your partner have been drinking, smoking or are too tired to respond to your baby. Even your baby was premature or had a low birth weight then also it is not advisable to co-sleep with your baby. Even so, we can understand the appeal of co-sleeping.
• Buy A Cot for Easier Breast Feeding: Feeding your baby during the nighttime will require more than turning around. This is much easier than reaching out from your under your warm duvet to bring your baby to you. If you co-sleep with your baby then they will probably wake up and feed more often than babies who sleep separately. However, you can opt for a cot, beside you with the baby lying on his back. Fit the cot against your bed with the fourth side removed. Slide your hungry baby towards you without getting out of the bed. If you are keeping your child in a separate room, then it would be a bit tough to feed him at night. Now, if you keep him with you then you don’t even have to walk to feed your baby. It will help you both in a great way.

Baby Nursing Will Be Lot More Smooth and Simple

Babies need a prolonged care and nursing, during the first few months after his or her birth. They need to be soothed, feed and changed time and again. Irrespective of the time you have to provide care and affection in order to keep him safe and secure. During the night, after a hectic day, it becomes tough to provide this care if you are keeping him in another room. Whenever the cry you have to offer your breast to them and if a newborn is six weeks old and sleeping as long as four hours then you have him up to feed. He needs to eat or else he will get in a bad cycle of so hungry that he is exhausted and so exhausted that he can’t ask for food. All these can be given to the baby during the daytime but what about the night? How many times do you need to get from your bed to take care and feed him? Being able to meet the baby’s need simply by rolling over can help the baby and mother get more rest. When the baby’s need are met quickly and in on near their sleep location, the baby often drifts back to sleep with little help from the mother. Thus keeping him with or near you is a good idea.

Parents and Baby Can Sleep Longer Time

When you keep your baby with you then it will be beneficial for both of you. Mother and the babies are wired for closeness. Some benefits are:

• Better Quality Sleep: Many mothers do not experience a better quality sleep if their babies go to the hospital nursery at night. Co-sleeping may not be a guarantee for every mother but it makes them sleep better knowing that their baby is safe and close by.
• Reduces The Risk Of SIDS: The possibility of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) will be reduced and you can sleep without any tension. SIDS is an unexplained death usually during the sleep of seemingly healthy baby less than a year old. It is also known as crib death as the child often dies in their crib. The baby items in a baby’s crib and his or her sleeping position can combine with a baby’s physical problems to increase the risk of SIDS. So sleeping next to your baby or her crib will reduce this risk.
• Child Can Sleep Well:  The child will have a good sleep sensing the presence of you, near him. Most of the times adult beds aren’t safe for babies as they can become trapped and suffocate between the headboard slats, the space between the mattress and the bed frame, or the space between the mattress and the wall. A baby can also suffocate if a sleeping parent accidentally rolls over and covers the baby’s nose and mouth.

Thus, reading these benefits, you can now certainly understand why co-sleeping is important for your baby. This will provide him security and pleasure to you.