In this study, Barry & Mckenna review reasons why mothers bedshare and its effects on infant behavior and development. Currently, in western societies, it is widely believed that bedsharing puts infants at a high risk for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) but one of the key points of this research shows that when infants and mothers bedshare, it actually increases the mother’s ability to monitor their babies throughout the night and that technically sleeping in separate rooms is also a huge risk factor for SIDS. There is also research that supports bedsharing facilitating maternal instinctiveness. It is also known that just being physically separate causes infants to be more stressed so bedsharing can help to decrease infant stress. Bedsharing also has benefits for developing a secure attachment. Bedsharing increases the frequency and duration of breastfeeding which is greatly beneficial for infant development. Bedsharing helps both infants and moms achieve better quality sleep at night because, even though moms wake up more when bedsharing, they do not have to get up out of bed to tend to their infants. Additionally, infants that bedshare cry less because they do not have to cry as much or as long to get their parent’s attention when they wake up at night. Additionally, research shows that any obstruction to airways is typically cleared by moms or infants themselves before it becomes a risk during bedsharing.
Written by Disha Aggrarwal.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101684