Many of you know the very viral piece "Why African Babies Don't Cry: An African Perspective". Well, here I present a guest article by the same author, the very talented JC Niala, on sleeping from her very unique, personal history as an African-British woman. I am so thrilled she has decided to share this with us and hope you enjoy it!
We were luckily able to view a copy of the article in advance and the group of researchers I have worked with on other posts and I wrote a response. This is it. It has been shared as a press release generally and given specifically to the BBC (the study is a UK one). We shall see how the media responds in the days to come, but it's nice to know that at least we're not one step behind this time!
I have been told by many about all the things my daughter will supposedly never do. From family, friends, and complete strangers. Everyone has an opinion and rarely is it positive.
Bedsharing is a wonderful thing when it works for a family, but it doesn't work for all families. Here is a brief review of some questions to ask yourself if you're considering bedsharing to find out if it's right for you or not.
Recently an article has made the rounds on various news sources stating that co-sleeping has negative effects for mom, but a closer look at the research suggests that this is not all what it seems.
On April 5, 2012 Vanessa Clark was found guilty of child endangerment in the death of their 2-month-old son Tristan in July 2010. What did she do? She co-slept with him. There are multiple things wrong with this though and we need to look at all them to understand how flawed this outcome and entire situation is.
I feel like it’s time to not just point out what many of us having pointed out over and over – namely that education is key – but to truly examine why these places are feeling the need to take this route and what’s wrong with their approach (beyond the obvious).
A fabulous review of issues surrounding bedsharing and co-sleeping by Dr. Helen Ball of Durham University. Reprinted with permission.
There is an endless array of questions and judgments and ‘should’s associated with both infant sleep and feeding. But this hasn’t always been the case. It used to be a simple matter of mother breastfeeding and mother and infant sleeping together with no judgment and no questions about quality or quantity of sleep.
An overview of the research on the supposed link between increased SIDS risk and co-sleeping. Warning that there doesn't seem to be much to it, but there are some real considerations that need to be taken into account.
