The expectations of how, when, and where babies will sleep is shaped largely by the culture into which they are born.
sleep Around the World
The ideal sleep arrangement for infants and toddlers is a very personal decision that varies greatly around the world. In the United States, American parents tend to lean towards a sleep model that fosters independence through solitary sleep and self-soothing. In Japan, parents advocate co-sleeping with their children for extended periods beyond infancy in an effort to foster interdependence, comparing the sleep arrangement to two banks with the river, or child, running between them (McKenna, 2005). In Guatemala, Mayan parents view the infant and mother as an inseparable unit, spending their days and nights together until the child is into their second year. The !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert have no expectation of their children sleeping through the night. Adults welcome the youngest of children to spend time with them around the campfire throughout the night (Small, 1998). It is clear that culture shapes the choices that parents make in regard to infant and toddler sleep. Values of independence and self-sufficiency are reflected in sleep arrangements that cultivate these qualities. Likewise, values of interdependence and kinship are reflected in sleep arrangements that include infants and toddlers. Whatever the location or timing of sleep practices, parents all over the globe have one distinct commonality: The love of their children.
A brief history of co-sleeping
Until approximately two hundred years ago, all babies were co-sleeping with an adult caregiver. The idea that a baby needed a separate place to sleep is a fairly new concept in the scope of human history. Laws enacted throughout Europe to prevent parents from sleeping with their babies in order to protect them from being smothered began showing up between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. It was during this period that the Catholic Church was also becoming increasingly concerned with the possibility that children were sexually vulnerable when sleeping in the same bed as their parents. Parental privacy, in order to protect the sacred and private bond of man and wife, meant that children were no longer welcome in to the marital bed (Small, 1998). Over the past hundred years, the medical field has continued to reinforce the idea that solitary sleeping best serves both the baby and its parents. Pediatricians, particularly in America, perpetuated the belief that babies benefit from the independence that comes with sleeping alone. However, more recently America has seen a resurgence in co-sleeping as the nutritional benefits of breast feeding have entered the mainstream. Pediatricians in neonatal intensive care units are also recognizing that the skin to skin contact of a parent holding their premature infants close is highly therapeutic. While co-sleeping is still far from being advocated by Western medical practitioners and public health officials, there are those proponents who are also making their voices heard.
References
Small, M. F. (1998). Our babies, ourselves: How biology and culture shape the way we parent. New York: Anchor Books.
McKenna, J. J. & McDade, T. (2005). Why babies should never sleep alone: A review of the co-sleeping controversy in relation to SIDS, bedsharing, and breastfeeding.
Pediatric Respiratory Reviews, (6)2, 134-152.
Retrieved From:
http://www.naturalchild.org/james_mckenna/cosleeping_world.html
http://www.askdrsears.com/
Small, M. F. (1998). Our babies, ourselves: How biology and culture shape the way we parent. New York: Anchor Books.
McKenna, J. J. & McDade, T. (2005). Why babies should never sleep alone: A review of the co-sleeping controversy in relation to SIDS, bedsharing, and breastfeeding.
Pediatric Respiratory Reviews, (6)2, 134-152.
Retrieved From:
http://www.naturalchild.org/james_mckenna/cosleeping_world.html
http://www.askdrsears.com/