What are the leading health organizations saying about the concepts promoted on this site?
Maternal Mental Health/ Bonding:
US Department of Health and Human Services. in Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General—Executive Summary. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; 1999
(In the Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General—Executive Summary ) “Satcher emphasized the foundation that emotional well-being provides for health, noting that "mental health is fundamental to health." Mental health is crucial to a mother's capacity to function optimally, enjoy relationships, prepare for the infant's birth, and cope with the stresses and appreciate the joys of parenthood.
AMA (American Medical Association): in JAMA. 2003;289:1701 Maternal-Fetal Attachment
Social support of family members and peers is a significant predictor of MFA (maternal-fetal attachment). Perceived support of prenatal care providers was correlated with MFA at 0.74, providing further evidence that psychosocial support is a critical component of prenatal care.
Annals of Family Medicine (peer-reviewed research journal to meet the needs of scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and the patients and communities they serve).
in Annals of Family Medicine 5:519-527 (2007)
Longer childbirth-related leaves had a positive association with maternal health in 2 studies conducted in Minnesota before FMLA was enacted. Studies found a positive association of leave on maternal vitality after 12 weeks of leave, and on maternal mental health at 15 weeks, and at 24 weeks or more.
Better preconception health was associated with better postpartum health at 11 weeks after childbirth across all measures. This result is consistent with national recommendations to promote women’s health before conception to improve childbirth-related outcomes.
BMC Pediatrics (an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of health care in neonates, children and adolescents, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology.)
in A mother's cuddle eases a baby's pain - Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent http://www.telegraphttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/24/nsenses124.xml
As well as confirming the power of a mother's touch, the research could offer a way of helping to relieve pain in children who are too young to take painkillers. Scientists registered the facial reactions, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels of 61 premature babies as they underwent a heel lance, which is used to take blood samples from the extremely young. The findings, published in the journal BMC Pediatrics, show that the signs of pain fell by half when babies were in their mother's arms.
also see: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/8/13/abstract
Breastfeeding:
It is recommended that breastfeeding continue for at least 12 months, and thereafter for as long as mutually desired.
Sugarman M, Kendall-Tackett KA. Weaning ages in a sample of American women who practice extended breastfeeding. Clinical Pediatrics 1995; 34:642-647
AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians):
Breastfeeding is the physiological norm for both mothers and their children. Breastmilk offers medical and psychological benefits not available from human milk substitutes. The AAFP recommends that all babies, with rare exceptions, be breastfed and/or receive expressed human milk exclusively for the first six months of life. Breastfeeding should continue with the addition of complementary foods throughout the second half of the first year. Breastfeeding beyond the first year offers considerable benefits to both mother and child, and should continue as long as mutually desired. Family physicians should have the knowledge to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding. (1989) (2007) policy statement
AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics): in PEDIATRICS Vol. 100 No. 6 December 1997, pp. 1035-1039- Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
Extensive research, especially in recent years, documents diverse and compelling advantages to infants, mothers, families, and society from breastfeeding and the use of human milk for infant feeding. These include health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Human milk is uniquely superior for infant feeding and is species-specific; all substitute feeding options differ markedly from it. The breastfed infant is the reference or normative model against which all alternative feeding methods must be measured with regard to growth, health, development, and all other short- and long-term outcomes.
Epidemiologic research shows that human milk and breastfeeding of infants provide advantages with regard to general health, growth, and development, while significantly decreasing risk for a large number of acute and chronic diseases. Research in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other developed countries, among predominantly middle-class populations, provides strong evidence that human milk feeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of diarrhea,1-5 lower respiratory infection,6-9 otitis media,3,10-14 bacteremia,15,16 bacterial meningitis,15,17 botulism,18 urinary tract infection,19 and necrotizing enterocolitis.20,21 There are a number of studies that show a possible protective effect of human milk feeding against sudden infant death syndrome,22-24 insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus,25-27 Crohn's disease,28,29 ulcerative colitis,29 lymphoma,30,31 allergic diseases,32-34 and other chronic digestive diseases.35-37 Breastfeeding has also been related to possible enhancement of cognitive development.38,39
There are also a number of studies that indicate possible health benefits for mothers. It has long been acknowledged that breastfeeding increases levels of oxytocin, resulting in less postpartum bleeding and more rapid uterine involution.40 Lactational amenorrhea causes less menstrual blood loss over the months after delivery. Recent research demonstrates that lactating women have an earlier return to prepregnant weight,41 delayed resumption of ovulation with increased child spacing,42-44 improved bone remineralization postpartum45 with reduction in hip fractures in the postmenopausal period,46 and reduced risk of ovarian cancer47 and premenopausal breast cancer.48
In addition to individual health benefits, breastfeeding provides significant social and economic benefits to the nation, including reduced health care costs and reduced employee absenteeism for care attributable to child illness. The significantly lower incidence of illness in the breastfed infant allows the parents more time for attention to siblings and other family duties and reduces parental absence from work and lost income. The direct economic benefits to the family are also significant. It has been estimated that the 1993 cost of purchasing infant formula for the first year after birth was $855. During the first 6 weeks of lactation, maternal caloric intake is no greater for the breastfeeding mother than for the nonlactating mother.49,50 After that period, food and fluid intakes are greater, but the cost of this increased caloric intake is about half the cost of purchasing formula. Thus, a saving of >$400 per child for food purchases can be expected during the first year.51,52
AJPH (American Journal of Public Health): in American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2006.103218
Commercial hospital discharge packs are one of several factors that influence breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. The distribution of these packs to new mothers at hospitals is part of a longstanding marketing campaign by infant formula manufacturers and implies hospital and staff endorsement of infant formula. Commercial hospital discharge pack distribution should be reconsidered in light of its negative impact on exclusive breastfeeding.
AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics): in PEDIATRICS Vol. 121 No. 1 January 2008, pp. 183-191 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3022)
American Academy of Pediatrics has issued an update on the link between pregnant and nursing women’s diets, breastfeeding and the risk of infant allergies, published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. AAP recommends that in high-risk infants prone to atopic disease – which includes eczema, asthma and food allergies – exclusive breastfeeding for at least four months may delay or even prevent the condition.
Natural Birth:
The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Sept. 3, 2008
One of nature’s strongest bonds is the one shared between a mother and her child. New research suggests mothers who deliver vaginally may have a heightened bond with their babies compared to mothers who deliver via Caesarean section (c-section).
Researchers found mothers who delivered their babies vaginally were significantly more responsive to the cry of their own baby than mothers who had c-section delivery. MRI brain scans showed the mothers who delivered vaginally were more sensitive to their baby’s cry in the regions of the brain that regulate emotions, motivation and habitual behaviours.
This difference may be because delivering a child naturally involves the pulsatile release of oxytocin from the posterior pituitary, uterine contractions and vagino-cervical stimulation, whereas c-section delivery does not.
“Our results support the theory that variations in the delivery conditions such as with caesarian section, which alters the neurohormonal experiences of childbirth, might decrease the responsiveness of the human maternal brain in the early postpartum,” says James Swain, MD., PhD., researcher at the Child Study Center at Yale University.
C-section is considered necessary under some conditions for the health and wellbeing of both mother and child, but it has been controversially linked to postpartum depression. The number of c-section deliveries in the US has increased steeply from 4.5 percent of all deliveries in 1965 to 29.1 percent in 2006. Similar increases have been recorded in most of the Western world, including Ireland.
Scientific Benefits of Co-sleeping:
Popular media has tried to discourage parents from sharing sleep with their babies, calling this worldwide practice unsafe. Medical science, however, doesn't back this conclusion. In fact, research shows that co-sleeping is actually safer than sleeping alone. Here is what science says about sleeping with your baby:
Sleep more peacefully
Research shows that co-sleeping infants virtually never startle during sleep and rarely cry during the night, compared to solo sleepers who startle repeatedly throughout the night and spend 4 times the number of minutes crying . Startling and crying releases adrenaline, which increases heart rate and blood pressure, interferes with restful sleep and leads to long term sleep anxiety.
Stable physiology
Studies show that infants who sleep near to parents have more stable temperatures, regular heart rhythms, and fewer long pauses in breathing compared to babies who sleep alone. This means baby sleeps physiologically safer.
Decreases risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Worldwide research shows that the SIDS rate is lowest (and even unheard of) in countries where co-sleeping is the norm, rather than the exception. Babies who sleep either in or next to their parents' bed have a fourfold decrease in the chance of SIDS. Co-sleeping babies actually spend more time sleeping on their back or side which decreases the risk of SIDS. Further research shows that the carbon dioxide exhaled by a parent actually works to stimulate baby's breathing.
Long term emotional health
Co-sleeping babies grow up with a higher self-esteem, less anxiety, become independent sooner, are better behaved in school, and are more comfortable with affection. They also have less psychiatric problems.
Safer than crib sleeping
The Consumer Product Safety Commission published data that described infant fatalities in adult beds. These same data, however, showed more than 3 times as many crib related infant fatalities compared to adult bed accidents. Another recent large study concluded that bed sharing did NOT increase the risk of SIDS, unless the mom was a smoker or abused alcohol.
"Human infant social care is synonomous with physiological regulation. ...(There is a) maternal-infant micro-environment exchanging heat, touch, sound, movement, O2 and smells." James McKenna, PhD
Co-sleeping research/studies:
* Heron's (1) recent cross-sectional study of middle class English children shows that amongst the children who "never" slept in their parents bed there was a trend to be harder to control, less happy, exhibit a greater number of tantrums. Moreover, he found that those children who never were permitted to bed-share were actually more fearful than children who always slept in their parents bed, for all of the night (1).
* In a survey of adult college age subjects, Lewis and Janda (2)report that males who coslept with their parents between birth and five years of age had significantly higher self-esteem, experienced less guilt and anxiety, and reported greater frequency of sex. Boys who coslept between 6 and 11 years of age also had higher self-esteem. For women, cosleeping during childhood was associated with less discomfort about physical contact and affection as adults. (While these traits may be confounded by parental attitudes, such findings are clearly inconsistent with the folk belief that cosleeping has detrimental long-term effects on psycho-social development.
* Crawford (3) found that women who coslept as children had higher self esteem than those who did not. Indeed, cosleeping appears to promote confidence, self-esteem, and intimacy, possibly by reflecting an attitude of parental acceptance (Lewis and Janda 1988).
* A study of parents of 86 children in clinics of pediatrics and child psychiatry (ages 2-13 years) on military bases (offspring of military personnel) revealed that cosleeping children received higher evaluations of their comportment from their teachers than did solitary sleeping children, and they were underrepresented in psychiatric populations compared with children who did not cosleep. The authors state: "Contrary to expectations, those children who had not had previous professional attention for emotional or behavioral problems coslept more frequently than did children who were known to have had psychiatric intervention, and lower parental ratings of adaptive functioning. The same finding occurred in a sample of boys one might consider "Oedipal victors" (e.g. 3 year old and older boys who sleep with their mothers in the absence of their fathers)--a finding which directly opposes traditional analytic thought" (4).
* Again, in England Heron (1) found that it was the solitary sleeping children who were harder to handle (as reported by their parents) and who dealt less well with stress, and who were rated as being more (not less) dependent on their parents than were the cosleepers.
* In the largest and possible most systematic study to date, conducted on five different ethnic groups from both Chicago and New York involving over 1,400 subjects Mosenkis (5) found far more positive adult outcomes for individuals who coslept as a child, among almost all ethnic groups (African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York, Puerto Ricans,, Dominicans, and Mexicans in Chicago ) than there were negative findings. An especially robust finding which cut across all the ethnic groups included in the study was that cosleepers exhibited a feeling of satisfaction with life. But Mosenkis's main finding went beyond trying to determine easy causal links between sleeping arrangements and adult characteristics or experiences. Perhaps his most important finding was that the interpretation of "outcome" of cosleeping had to be understood within the context specific to each cultural milieu, and within the context of the nature of social relationships the child has with its family members. For the most part,s, therefore, it is probably true that neither social sleep (cosleeping) or solitary sleep as a child correlates with anything in any simple or direct way. Rather, sleeping arrangements can enhance or exacerbate the kind of relationships that characterize the child's daytime relationships and that, therefore, no one "function' can be associated with sleeping arrangements. Rather than assuming that sleeping arrangement produces a particular "type"person it is probably more accurate to think of sleeping arrangements as part of a larger system of affection and that it is altogether this larger system of attachment relationships, interacting with the child's own special characteristics that produces adult characteristics.
1. Heron P. Nonreactive CO-sleeping and Child Behavior: Getting a Good Night's Sleep All Night Every Night. Masters Thesis, University of
Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom , 1994.
2. Crawford, M. Parenting practices in the Basque country:Implications of infant and childhood sleeping location for personalitydevelopment. Ethos 1994, 22;1:42- 82.
3. Lewis RJ, LH Janda. The relationship between adult sexual adjustment and childhood experience regarding exposure to nudity,sleeping in the parental bed, and parental attitudes toward sexuality. Arch Sex Beh 1988; 17:349-363.. Crawford, M. Parenting practices in the Basque country: Implications of infant and childhood sleeping location for personality development.
4.. Forbes JF, Weiss DS, Folen RA. The CO-sleeping habits of military children. Military Medicine 1992; 157:196-200.
5. Mosenkis, J The Effects of Childhood Cosleeping On Later Life Development 1998. Masters Thesis. University of Chicago. Department of Human Development
James McKenna
Allowing a child to cry increases heart rate, irregularity of breathing, and increase in cortisol.
for more clinical reports and research on crying, click here
REFERENCES:
• C. Richard et al., "Sleeping Position, Orientation, and Proximity in Bedsharing Infants and Mothers," Sleep 19 (1996): 667-684.
• Touch in Early Development, T. Field, ed. (Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Earlbaum and Assoc., 1995).
• "SIDS Global Task Force Child Care Study" E.A.S. Nelson et al., Early Human Development 62 (2001): 43-55
• A. H. Sankaran et al., "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Infant Care Practices in Saskatchewan, Canada," Program and Abstracts, Sixth SIDS International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, February 8-11, 2000.
• D. P. Davies, "Cot Death In Hong Kong: A Rare Problem?" The Lancet 2 (1985): 1346-1348.
• N. P. Lee et al., "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Hong Kong: Confirmation of Low Incidence," British Medical Journal 298 (1999): 72.
• S. Fukai and F. Hiroshi, "1999 Annual Report, Japan SIDS Family Association, " Sixth SIDS International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2000.
• E. A. S. Nelson et al., "International Child Care Practice Study: Infant Sleeping Environment, " Early Human Development 62 (2001): 43-55.
• P. S. Blair, P. J. Fleming, D. Bensley, et al., "Where Should Babies Sleep – Alone or With Parents? Factors Influencing the Risk Of SIDS in the CESDI Study," British Medical Journal 319 (1999): 1457-1462.
• P. Heron, "Non-Reactive Cosleeping and Child Behavior: Getting a Good Night's Sleep All Night, Every Night," Master's thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, 1994.
• M. Crawford, "Parenting Practices in the Basque Country: Implications of Infant and Childhood Sleeping Location for Personality Development" Ethos 22, no 1 (1994): 42-82.
• J. F. Forbes et al., "The Cosleeping Habits of Military Children," Military Medicine 157 (1992): 196-200.
• D. A. Drago and A. L. Dannenberg, "Infant Mechanical Suffocation Deaths in the United States, 1980-1997," Pediatrics 103, no. 5 (1999): e59.
• R. G. Carpenter et al., "Sudden Unexplained Infant Death in 20 Regions in Europe: Case Control Study," Lancet 2004; 363: 185-191.
• McKenna, J., et al, "Experimental studies of infant-parent co-sleeping: Mutual physiological and behavioral influences and their relevance to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)." Early Human Development 38 (1994)187-201.
• Sara Latz, MD, JD; Abraham W. Wolf, PhD; Betsy Lozoff, MD Cosleeping in Context Sleep Practices and Problems in Young Children in Japan and the United States Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1999;153:339-346.
• NIH (National Institutes of Health- Department of Health and Human Services) links and information on Waterbirth:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1595176
