Guest Post: Dear Mama
What would our babies say if they could speak? Would we ever put them down if we knew?
What would our babies say if they could speak? Would we ever put them down if we knew?
Many families will end up bedsharing at some point without having properly prepared for it. Whatever your plans are, take a moment to review your bed and your situation to ensure that bedsharing is as safe as possible if or when it comes to it.
The AAP recently suggested that bedsharing should never occur with infants under 4 months of age, leaving many breastfeeding families wondering what they should do for sleep. I look at the evidence for this recommendation to see if it holds up.
Separation anxiety is a normal, natural stage for babies, but that doesn't make it any easier on the caregiver. Here are some tips to help parents through this sometimes trying stage.
I needed to birth at home. I would go to the hospital if a life-threatening emergency presented itself, but home is where I am most comfortable. Home, to me, is where my baby belonged when he or she emerged into this world.
For the majority of human history, we have shared sleep with our infants which has led some researchers to speculate that this is related to the development of secure attachment, but this has yet to be studied... until now. The results may surprise some people.
It seems that messages on bedsharing differ depending on where you are. If everyone is looking at the same evidence, why are they coming to different conclusions? A look at the research suggests not everyone is looking at it the same way...
Parents are being arrested for running into the store for 5 minutes and deciding to leave their child in the car. Is this really the society we've become? Instead of looking out for the child, we call 911 and have the parent arrested?
Is it fair to have a blanket statement that formula feeding families cannot bedshare? Do the benefits of bedsharing require us to consider a more nuanced message? What does the research tell us?
Texas is on pace to have a record-setting number of "bedsharing" deaths. Their plan? The same old tired song and dance of telling people how bad it is. Isn't it time we tried something new like sharing information?