An Ideal Birth Story!

http://www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/we-had-a-baby-and-here-is-our-unusual-story


By James Colquhoun, Filmmaker Food Matters &Hungry For Change

For those following us on online and onFacebook (nearly 300k, thank you!!!) you might have seen Laurentine's pregnant belly over the past few months. Well we recently had our baby and we wanted to share our unique story with you. I think you'll find it interesting commentary on birth and the beginnings of life as a human.

I call this an unusual story because it is not the typical hospital style birth that dominates our culture. 

Ever since Laurentine and I first met at college at 1999 (yes we're college sweethearts!) we would joke about starting a family and having lots of kids running around. We did however feel deep down inside that there was some important work calling us before we did so which is indeed what happened.

That work was to become the FOOD MATTERS film which helped heal my father from chronic fatigue syndrome, depression and anxiety plus free him from the pharmaceutical drug bandwagon. Then more recently HUNGRY FOR CHANGE which chronicled our experience with helping my father keep his weight off and covers many of the challenges that most people face when trying detoxes and fad diets. This has cemented our belief in the innate healing capacity of the human body and has influenced our opinions on health, life and birth in a deep and lasting way.

The Mind and The Body Need To Be Ready For Conception

Late last year we knew it was time for us to start a family so we prepared our bodies (both of us, you can't get away with this guys!) most importantly focusing on detoxification and rejuvenating our bodies plus balancing our hormones (testosterone, progesterone and oestrogen in particular). We first tried to conceive in Amsterdam when we were there on a 6 week trip writing the Hungry For Change book and visiting Laurentine's European family. Even though we had our bodies in order it didn't happen right away.

After we returned to the US and settled into our new home in Santa Monica Laurentine and I felt that much more 'nested' and conception happened immediately. There was obviously a part of us that needed to feel like we were home (or had a home base) before her body wished to conceive. I have no scientific data on this but can imagine that you might understand why this could be so.

"We had our inner biological terrain ready but we needed to have our mind's dialed in."

During the gestation period we were eating well and supporting the baby's development as best we knew how (there is a lot of info on this which we can save for another time). In preparation for the birth we consulted many of the experts from the films plus other leading experts and we developed some interesting rituals to help welcome this baby into the world. One of the more interesting ones we loved was making baby feel welcomed, expected and accepted.

You Are Welcomed, You Are Loved, You Are Accepted!

We would say this on a daily basis to baby as we knew this was important in making baby feel welcomed and loved, to develop a strong connection to our voices (which they can connect with from the 3rd  trimester onwards) and to aid in a speedy postpartum connection. This work is backed by Bruce Lipton (author of Biology Of Belief) and helps connect with the baby's subconscious mind in early life.

As for the actual birth and labour process Laurentine and I held the very strong belief that...

Birth Is A Natural Process And Not A Medical Emergency

We of course appreciate that there is no place like a hospital when the safety of mom and baby is compromised and you need emergency critical care however we believed that everything should be allowed to progress as naturally as possible for as long as possible before any intervention (if at all).

This being the case we opted for a home birth with two midwives and a doula. We worked with the famous birth centre in Los Angeles, California as featured in Ricki Lake's documentaries 'The Business of Being Born' and 'More Business of Being Born'. This clinic resonated with our beliefs about how birth should be and it had the professionals to back them up.

We did a lot of preparation and education leading up to the birth, so that we would understand as much about the birth process and postpartum period as we could as this was OUR birth and we knew that we were the ones playing a big part in this.

Laurentine's Water Broke At 7am on Sunday the 7th of the 7th

I'm not one for numerology but this is certainly interesting :) The team was called in and they came to the house setting up a birthing pool (blow up jacuzzi) and with all their midwife medical accoutrements. Laurentine's contractions were getting stronger and stronger and she quickly dilated to 7cm in a few hours.

Part of our team and planning was to have a hypnotherapist as our doula at the birth.

She Was In A Hypnotic Trance For Most Of The Birth

In between contractions we would count her down into hypnosis (which we had been training for over a few months) which brought the pain down dramatically and increased the pleasure of the early stages of labor before the transition and pushing stages.

As the labor progressed, baby had turned and was not in an ideal position facing head towards her left leg and slightly upwards (posterior) despite the fact he had been in a perfect backwards facing (anterior) position for months leading up to the birth. Typically this is a much more painful birth as the back of the baby's head (hard part) is rubbing against the mothers lower spine (ouch!) and in a traditional hospital environment would call for an episiotomy (slicing the mother's vagina to anus to make more room) and sucking the baby out with a vacuum or a caesarian section.

Given that we wanted to do all we could naturally we had some other options up our sleeve.

We Called A Chiropractor In Mid-Labor To Turn The Baby!

Our midwives made a call to a local chiropractor who was a specialist in pre-natal care. It was Sunday at around 2pm and he made the trip out to Santa Monica from Hollywood just for us!

He was a 6 foot something giant of a man and a welcomed sight :) He began deep tissue massage around the hips, back and spine and although Laurentine was mid-labor and fully dilated she was in total ecstasy for 2 hours as he worked on her and baby.

He worked with her through contractions helping her to surrender and allow baby to fully relax. He also adjusted her hips (sounded like an AK-47 firing rounds on first twist!) and literally massaged baby and then he flipped! He turned into a near perfect anterior (face backwards) position (although still a little facing left). It was an amazing thing to witness and experience and after he was done you could see the baby in her belly lined up straight like a marching soldier ready to visit us!

Baby Turned And Was Ready For Transition

Transition and pushing took a while as he came closer to this world and the team worked with her to guide her through certain positions until we found ourselves on the birthing stool (like a chair with no bottom) in the meditation room overlooking the ocean ready for him to come (don't tell our landlord, apparently they didn't even let the last owners have a cat! haha).
As he came closer I moved from behind Laurentine to the front so that I could catch the baby as this was what we had wanted. His head came out and cleared to his neck as I cupped his head in my hands and whispered to him: you are welcomed, loved and accepted... upon hearing my voice he immediately opened his eyes and it was the most divine experience I have ever had in my entire life (now's the time to cry if you feel so inclined...)

His body then quickly emerged and I caught him in my hands and it was a BOY!

I held him briefly before passing him to Laurentine to place on her chest and connect the parental bond and help to kick in the oxytocin (love hormone). The birth happened at 7:54pm on Sunday the 7th of the 7th and the placenta was birthed at 8pm. He was named Hugo Colquhoun shortly thereafter.

We Kept The Placenta Connected For About 3 Hours

This is because there is approximately 600ml of blood still in the placenta at birth which continues to be pumped to the baby helping to support his transition and immunity. Most hospitals clamp immediately after birth and then cut the cord however only after about 3 hours did we eventually clamp and then I also got to cut the cord (it's a unique rubber texture for those wondering).

We had the clinics OBGYN visit the house todo a final check. Dr Stewart Fischbein is a renegade OB who after years in the medical profession is fighting women's rights to VBAC's - vaginal birth after c-section and is one of the last remaining docs who delivers breached babies and twins vaginally. He is the author of the book 'Fearless Pregnancy' and is featured in 'More Business of Being Born'.

Everyone eventually left the house at around 1am and we proceeded to get some sleep (2-3 hours) before I had to wake up and stick to a commitment I made to a national TV show which had been booked months in advance. I got up at 5am and headed to the burbank studios of Access Hollywood for a segment on Hungry For Change where...

I Announced The Birth To My Parents On National Television!

After this set I drove straight home and bubba was still making his transition into the world and slowly learning to suckle and feed. We called our lactation consultant (Kimberly The Amazing!) and she helped but recommended some cranial-sacral therapy to help dial in the baby's spine and nervous system and bring him more into his body.

Baby Had Cranial-Sacral Body Work Done Within The First 48 Hours!

It was amazing to see the results after his muscles, bones and nerves were gently helped into optimal positioning. You could see his eyes, mouth and suckling reflexes come in fast and he really found his way after this simple and effective treatment.He went straight on the boob and has been sucking like a champion since. There is no doubt he would have developed this over time however this really did help to speed things up and allow his body to come into natural alignment after the birth faster.

After 3 days baby was looking strong but as the oxytocin high (remember the love hormone I mentioned earlier) started wearing off we were so lucky that...

We Decided To Encapsulate The Placenta To Supplement After Birth

Did you know that most mammals eat their placenta after birth (minus dolphins of course as it gets lost in the water... bummer!) and that this natural process is thought to help to tell the body that the baby is out and to contract the uterus, increase milk supply and balance the mom's hormones.

One of the midwives took the placenta after birth, dehydrated it then blended it into a powder and encapsulated it. On day 3 after the birth when I first started noticing the symptoms of postpartum moodiness or depression at its infancy the capsules arrived and almost immediately after taking them Laurentine was on high for hours and feeling like superwoman! 

She has been in incredible spirits ever since and very present for the connection with baby in these early days and especially her traditional Eastern postpartum treatment of...

Uterus Massage And Belly Binding

In Ayurvedic and Eastern traditions the belly becomes cold after birth as there has been a big transition from the heat of having a baby in there. These traditions suggest warming Ayurvedic foods, rest, massage and belly binding to help contract the uterus and bring the organs back into position as safely and quickly as possible. There is a local lady (called Princess none the less) who visits us every two days for twenty days to assist in this process along with a healing meditation during the massage.

On top of all of this there is one other important thing we don't do...

We Don't Clean Our Baby

In the first week (and we'll likely continue for up to a month) we are not using any soaps or products on his body (except for a little coconut oil on his bum to stop his poo sticking). This is because the vernix (protective coating) and other healthy bacteria (if the mom's ecology is in tact during pregnancy and birth - see Donna Gates' Body Ecology Diet for more info on this) are protective to his immune system and overall health. We think of this process along with colostrum, breast milk, sunlight exposure, and vaginal fluid from birth inoculating the baby's stomach all make part of his very own unique immunization and healthy start to this world.

We when speak to family, friends and any media about our birth experience they are often a little shocked to hear about how unorthodox it all was. But in hearing about the success we had (and the comparable birth this would have been in a hospital environment) they feel such options should be at least made available to all women giving birth.

We Believe Our Unconventional Birth Story Should Be The Norm! Do You?

Thank you all for your support over the past years (since 2007) with the Food Matters and Hungry For Change films and the movement we have made together to open up options for health and healing outside of the mainstream medical paradigm. We felt your support with us during this birth and look forward to continuing to share all that we discover over the coming months and years with more films, books and articles. We love what we do and we love helping share these important lifesaving messages with the world.

Please share with us below your thoughts on our story, any comments you might have or questions that are coming up in reading this. We love hearing from you. 

Additionally we wish to acknowledge that every family's birth experience can vary dramatically however we believe that any style of birth can be a miraculous and and spiritual experience.

To be continued...

In good health,

James and Laurentine  

Selfish Women and Their Silly Birth Experiences

Posted by Cristen on May 7, 2013 in Articles, Avoiding a C-section | 46 comments

This is not a post about natural birth.  Just keep reading.

When I was preparing to give birth, I saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime event and something I wanted, more than anything, to do “right.”  By doing it “right,” I meant that I wanted the safest and most positive outcome possible; to me, it was perfectly obvious that safety and a good experience were inextricably linked.  And, as the person playing the most active role in the event, I felt it was my responsibility to shape those things.

It was a little alarming to me that so many of my friends and acquaintances who had given birth did not particularly want to talk about it, and didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea that I learned as much as I could about it before doing it.

Before and after giving birth, I got the sense from some people that in seeking a “positive” experience, I was being high-maintenance and was somehow less concerned with my baby’s well-being than someone who didn’t ask questions or want to actively participate.  I rolled my eyes at the speculation and barreled right through it, but, on reflection, it struck me as odd.  How could it be “selfish” to do what I could to facilitate a less traumatic birth?  Didn’t less traumatic mean “safer”?  My body—a body I’d come to know and like for the last 30-some years—was being subjected to a major, life-altering process.  Why did it suddenly have such reduced value?  Why was I suddenly not supposed to have any say over what happened to it?

And . . . why did people assume that my baby’s safety must be lower on my priority list, because I wanted his birth to be a positive experience? 

That’s a doozy of an assumption.

Prior to giving birth, my primary motivations for attempting a normal, unmedicated, physiologic birth were so that my baby wouldn’t be born with drugs in his system; so that we could benefit from the dance of hormones science hasn’t come close to replicating; and so we could avoid the dreaded “cascade of interventions” that ends in 1 in 3 American babies being born by surgery.  All of these things meant healthier bodies, better bonding, and a higher chance of successful breastfeeding.  That was selfish?

When I first began researching birth and options, I went in completely biased against unmedicated birth (why would anyone choose pain?), but what I found didn’t support my bias.  I found, to my complete surprise, that it was possible to give birth with dignity and humanity, and that, on the whole, those births seemed to be the least medically risky.  Over and over again, I saw that the births where women were supported in the process rather than managed like children–where mom was treated by her skilled, attentive providers as the most important person in the room–the smoother the birth and the safer the baby.  Bingo.

Choices in birth are very personal.  I do not believe that every woman should, must, or can have a physiologic birth.  That fact does not change a word that I write here.

It was only after I gave birth that I grasped the real value of what I instinctively wanted.  I’m not sure I knew it then, but my tendency toward a physiologic birth was me protecting myself and my baby.  But the bigger picture is that if birth were merely a day or two out of our lives, I wouldn’t have gone on to devote my time to this cause.  Birth carries a much bigger impact than a one-time mere medical event.

Birth is valuable because it is the beginning of the mother-baby relationship.

Once you have been a mother, you will never not be a mother again.  The minute you go into labor, you are on a rollercoaster that doesn’t stop.

The way you meet your baby can very much set the tone for the postpartum period.  It is a tough time.  You’re unsure of yourself, on no sleep, hoping you don’t accidentally harm or starve this helpless, completely dependent little thing. The stress of a baby crying for no discernable reason is indescribable.  I don’t recall ever feeling so frustrated in my life.  We all laugh about those moments of irrationality, when you have to place your baby in her crib and walk away in order to keep your sanity.

I have seen first-hand how the birth experience impacts this time.  I came off my baby’s birth strengthened and confident—in complete awe of what my body had done.  And it was still the most difficult time I’ve ever had.  I’ve seen what happens when women come off a traumatic birth, too, and I’ve seen the lack of spirit and the helplessness they sometimes exhibit.  I’ve talked to the women who spent hours crying in the basement or listless in bed, unable to get it together, or just dragging through the day with no joy.  Even the women who rally and carry on are carrying wounds they must wrestle with at some point or another.

When I say “traumatic birth,” I’m not talking about medical complications. I’m talking largely about healthy women with realistic expectations who were treated disrespectfully or without compassion at that most vulnerable time: women who weren’t treated like the most important person in the room, as they gave birth to the most important thing in the world.

Feelings of desperation, low spirits, and worse plague a new mother and affect how she nurtures her baby.  We’ve only begun to explore the connection between birth experiences and incidences of postpartum depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in new moms.  Coming off birth strengthened and supported is invaluable to mom and baby.

Something we forget is that you are already a mother during birth.  Birth and postpartum are your relationship with your baby as a new mom.  The quality of that time is something you will remember all your life.  Saying that what happens with you and your baby during and after birth doesn’t matter is the same as saying it doesn’t matter whether you bond with your toddler or that it doesn’t matter whether your teenager hates you.  Birth is part of your life as a mother.  This is your life.

Birth is valuable because women matter.

It’s a dangerous assumption I alluded to above: that only a woman who doesn’t care about her baby would care about her body and her birth.  It’s damaging and wrong to communicate to women that we must make a choice between ourselves and our babies, because we can’t both matter.

Acting as if a baby’s safety is compromised by treating his mother well in birth is ludicrous, and I’d like to call for an end to that.  If I could go back in time, I’d ask those people who questioned me to please explain how I was the most important factor in pregnancy and the least important in birth.  How my value as a person deserving of positive experiences plummeted so dramatically when I crossed the threshold from pregnant woman to woman in labor.  And how on earth treating my body well in pregnancy was intuitive, but treating my body well in birth was not.

I’d say to those people, “Explain to me again how it’s selfish to take my responsibility as a mother seriously?”

Simply by virtue of being human beings, women matter.  We deserve respect, compassion, and kindness in birth, because we are human beings.  But let’s not forget that greatest of responsibilities given to us as mothers: we are guardians of our babies.  In pregnancy and birth, what happens to us happens to our babies.  And because the ways in which our children come into the world are some of our first acts as mothers, our babies deserve for us to be treated as if we matter.

I encourage you to embrace that truth, and act as if you mean it.

 _________________________

Cristen Pascucci is Vice President of ImprovingBirth.org.She is a political and communications strategist, and writes professionally.Contact her here to inquire about those services.

Also by Cristen:
A Healthy Baby Isn’t All That Matters
Respect in Birth: Get Over Yourselves
Take Back Your BirthI Don’t Care How You Give BirthOne Year Ago Today

Dads and Doulas

Doulas from the Dad’s Perspective

Posted on March 3, 2012 by kit

Thanks to my husband, Kit, for sharing his thoughts about doulas from a father’s perspective.

She’s gone quiet. She was excited, and now she’s serious. Which signpost was this? Does this mean she’s close? Now she’s quiet. She’s never quiet. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? How do I help her? I remember that Sears book. Barely. It mentioned something about helping with the pain. What was it? I don’t remember!

Sound familiar, Dad? This was me once upon a time. Scattered, a little bit panicked, and unsure of what to do or where to go or what Heidi was going to need next.

To be clear, the idea of being a superdad really appeals to me. I want to be my wife’s hero, supporting her exactly as she needs during her labor. But let’s face it, there’s a ton of stuff going on, and pretty much none of it is even remotely within your control. So the question remains, what can you do to best support your wife?

It turns out it was pretty simple for me. Just focus on her. Keep near. Hold her when she needs it. Let her hang on me. Look in her eyes when transition comes. Let her know she can do it and that she’s not alone. But what about the other stuff?

That’s where our doula came in. What the heck does a doula do, anyway? Turns out, doulas are versatile and handy to have around. With a little bit of planning, they come prepared to help you with pretty much whatever you need during your labor.

We discussed Heidi’s hopes and dreams with our doula well before Heidi’s due date came. Labor positions, coping techniques, all those sorts of things were noted, catalogued, and planned for.

While we were in the zone, running straight into transition, focusing on getting the baby here, our doula was able to remember everything that fell away. “Try walking.” “Get off your side.” You’re looking shaky, here’s some juice.” And Heidi and I were able to focus on the moment.

Our doula was our spare brain. Our brains were otherwise singularly occupied with getting Heidi through labor. We were forgetting things, but that’s okay. We had our doula. She freed us from the minutae of labor and let us just be in the moment.

I can’t stress how much having a doula helped me, as a husband, support my wife better. The weird part for me was to realize that superdad could be a superhusband by asking for a little help. Our doula was worth every penny of her fee.

Heidi is now a doula herself, helping moms and dads have their perfect births. Friends ask how that’s working for us, me having to drop everything to stay home with the kids so Heidi can go and help out with a birth. It’s no sacrifice. Our doula was so effective during our birth, I kind of feel it’s my duty to now help Heidi be that for some other couple. I love that Heidi is able to be a doula. I believe in the power of doulas. For birthing parents, Doulas can make all the difference in the world.

The photo is Kit and our doula just after our sixth baby arrived. The day we found out we were expecting my husband asked me to call our doula to get on her schedule! To learn more about doula services click here.

This entry was posted in Birth, Dads, Doulas and tagged Denton Texas labor support birth doula. Bookmark thepermalink.

Cosleeping

http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/12/21/cosleeping-and-biological-imperatives-why-human-babies-do-not-and-should-not-sleep-alone/

Cosleeping and Biological Imperatives: Why Human Babies Do Not and Should Not Sleep Alone

Posted by dlende on December 21, 2008

By James J. McKenna Ph.D.
Edmund P. Joyce C.S.C. Chair in Anthropology
Director, Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory
University of Notre Dame
Author of Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent’s Guide to Cosleeping

Where a baby sleeps is not as simple as current medical discourse and recommendations against cosleeping in some western societies want it to be. And there is good reason why. I write here to explain why the pediatric recommendations on forms of cosleeping such as bedsharing will and should remain mixed. I will also address why the majority of new parents practice intermittent bedsharing despite governmental and medical warnings against it.

Definitions are important here. The term cosleeping refers to any situation in which a committed adult caregiver, usually the mother, sleeps within close enough proximity to her infant so that each, the mother and infant, can respond to each other’s sensory signals and cues. Room sharing is a form of cosleeping, always considered safe and always considered protective. But it is not the room itself that it is protective. It is what goes on between the mother (or father) and the infant that is. Medical authorities seem to forget this fact. This form of cosleeping is not controversial and is recommended by all.

Unfortunately, the terms cosleeping, bedsharing and a well-known dangerous form of cosleeping, couch or sofa cosleeping, are mostly used interchangeably by medical authorities, even though these terms need to be kept separate. It is absolutely wrong to say, for example, that “cosleeping is dangerous” when roomsharing is a form of cosleeping and this form of cosleeping (as at least three epidemiological studies show) reduce an infant’s chances of dying by one half.

Bedsharing is another form of cosleeping which can be made either safe or unsafe, but it is not intrinsically one nor the other. Couch or sofa cosleeping is, however, intrinsically dangerous as babies can and do all too easily get pushed against the back of the couch by the adult, or flipped face down in the pillows, to suffocate.

Often news stories talk about “another baby dying while cosleeping” but they fail to distinguish between what type of cosleeping was involved and, worse, what specific dangerous factor might have actually been responsible for the baby dying. A specific example is whether the infant was sleeping prone next to their parent, which is an independent risk factor for death regardless of where the infant was sleeping. Such reports inappropriately suggest that all types of cosleeping are the same, dangerous, and all the practices around cosleeping carry the same high risks, and that no cosleeping environment can be made safe.

Nothing can be further from the truth. This is akin to suggesting that because some parents drive drunk with their infants in their cars, unstrapped into car seats, and because some of these babies die in car accidents that nobody can drive with babies in their cars because obviously car transportation for infants is fatal. You see the point.

One of the most important reasons why bedsharing occurs, and the reason why simple declarations against it will not eradicate it, is because sleeping next to one’s baby is biologically appropriate, unlike placing infants prone to sleep or putting an infant in a room to sleep by itself. This is particularly so when bedsharing is associated with breast feeding.

When done safely, mother-infant cosleeping saves infants lives and contributes to infant and maternal health and well being. Merely having an infant sleeping in a room with a committed adult caregiver (cosleeping) reduces the chances of an infant dying from SIDS or from an accident by one half!

Research

In Japan where co-sleeping and breastfeeding (in the absence of maternal smoking) is the cultural norm, rates of the sudden infant death syndrome are the lowest in the world. For breastfeeding mothers, bedsharing makes breastfeeding much easier to manage and practically doubles the amount of breastfeeding sessions while permitting both mothers and infants to spend more time asleep. The increased exposure to mother’s antibodies which comes with more frequent nighttime breastfeeding can potentially, per any given infant, reduce infant illness. And because co-sleeping in the form of bedsharing makes breastfeeding easier for mothers, it encourages them to breastfeed for a greater number of months, according to Dr. Helen Ball’s studies at the University of Durham, therein potentially reducing the mothers chances of breast cancer. Indeed, the benefits of cosleeping helps explain why simply telling parents never to sleep with baby is like suggesting that nobody should eat fats and sugars since excessive fats and sugars lead to obesity and/or death from heart disease, diabetes or cancer. Obviously, there’s a whole lot more to the story.

As regards bedsharing, an expanded version of its function and effects on the infant’s biology helps us to understand not only why the bedsharing debate refuses to go away, but why the overwhelming majority of parents in the United States (over 50% according to the most recent national survey) now sleep in bed for part or all of the night with their babies.

That the highest rates of bedsharing worldwide occur alongside the lowest rates of infant mortality, including Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) rates, is a point worth returning to. It is an important beginning point for understanding the complexities involved in explaining why outcomes related to bedsharing (recall, one of many types of cosleeping) vary between being protective for some populations and dangerous for others. It suggests that whether or not babies should bedshare and what the outcome will be may depend on who is involved, under what condition it occurs, how it is practiced, and the quality of the relationship brought to the bed to share. This is not the answer some medical authorities are looking for, but it certainly resonates with parents, and it is substantiated by scores of studies.

Understanding Recommendations

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) SIDS Sub-Committee for whom I served (ad hoc) as an expert panel member recommended that babies should sleep close to their mothers in the same room but not in the same bed. While I celebrated this historic roomsharing recommendation, I disagreed with and worry about the ramifications of the unqualified recommendation against any and all bedsharing. Further, I worry about the message being given unfairly (if not immorally) to mothers; that is, no matter who you are, or what you do, your sleeping body is no more than an inert potential lethal weapon against which neither you nor your infant has any control. If this were true, none of us humans would be here today to have this discussion because the only reason why we survived is because our ancestral mothers slept alongside us and breastfed us through the night!

I am not alone in thinking this way. The Academy of Breast Feeding Medicine, the USA Breast Feeding Committee, the Breast Feeding section of the American Academy of Pediatrics, La Leche League International, UNICEF and WHO are all prestigious organizations who support bedsharing and which use the best and latest scientific information on what makes mothers and babies safe and healthy. Clearly, there is no scientific consensus.

What we do agree on, however, is what specific “factors” increase the chances of SIDS in a bedsharing environment, and what kinds of circumstances increase the chances of suffocation either from someone in the bed or from the bed furniture itself. For example, adults should not bedshare if inebriated or if desensitized by drugs, or overly exhausted, and other toddlers or children should never be in a bed with an infant. Moreover, since having smoked during a pregnancy diminishes the capacities of infants to arouse to protect their breathing, smoking mothers should have their infants sleep alongside them on a different surface but not in the same bed.

My own physiological studies suggest that breastfeeding mother-infant pairs exhibit increased sensitivities and responses to each other while sleeping, and those sensitivities offers the infant protection from overlay. However, if bottle feeding, infants should lie alongside the mother in a crib or bassinet, but not in the same bed. Prone or stomach sleeping especially on soft mattresses is always dangerous for infants and so is covering their heads with blankets, or laying them near or on top of pillows. Light blanketing is always best as is attention to any spaces or gaps in bed furniture which needs to be fixed as babies can slip into these spaces and quickly to become wedged and asphyxiate. My recommendation is, if routinely bedsharing, to strip the bed apart from its frame, pulling the mattress and box springs to the center of the room, therein avoiding dangerous spaces or gaps into which babies can slip to be injured or die.

But, again, disagreement remains over how best to use this information. Certain medical groups, including some members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (though not necessarily the majority), argue that bedsharing should be eliminated altogether. Others, myself included, prefer to support the practice when it can be done safely amongst breastfeeding mothers. Some professionals believe that it can never be made safe but there is no evidence that this is true.

More importantly, parents just don’t believe it! Making sure that parents are in a position to make informed choices therein reflecting their own infant’s needs, family goals, and nurturing and infant care preferences seems to me to be fundamental.

Our Biological Imperatives

My support of bedsharing when practiced safely stems from my research knowledge of how and why it occurs, what it means to mothers, and how it functions biologically. Like human taste buds which reward us for eating what’s overwhelmingly critical for survival i.e. fats and sugars, a consideration of human infant and parental biology and psychology reveal the existence of powerful physiological and social factors that promote maternal motivations to cosleep and explain parental needs to touch and sleep close to baby.

The low calorie composition of human breast milk (exquisitely adjusted for the human infants’ undeveloped gut) requires frequent nighttime feeds, and, hence, helps explain how and why a cultural shift toward increased cosleeping behavior is underway. Approximately 73% of US mothers leave the hospital breast feeding and even amongst mothers who never intended to bedshare soon discover how much easier breast feeding is and how much more satisfied they feel with baby sleeping alongside often in their bed.

But it’s not just breastfeeding that promotes bedsharing. Infants usually have something to say about it too! And for some reason they remain unimpressed with declarations as to how dangerous sleeping next to mother can be. Instead, irrepressible (ancient) neurologically-based infant responses to maternal smells, movements and touch altogether reduce infant crying while positively regulating infant breathing, body temperature, absorption of calories, stress hormone levels, immune status, and oxygenation. In short, and as mentioned above, cosleeping (whether on the same surface or not) facilitates positive clinical changes including more infant sleep and seems to make, well, babies happy. In other words, unless practiced dangerously, sleeping next to mother is good for infants. The reason why it occurs is because… it is supposed to.

Recall that despite dramatic cultural and technological changes in the industrialized west, human infants are still born the most neurologically immature primate of all, with only 25% of their brain volume. This represents a uniquely human characteristic that could only develop biologically (indeed, is only possible) alongside mother’s continuous contact and proximity—as mothers body proves still to be the only environment to which the infant is truly adapted, for which even modern western technology has yet to produce a substitute.

Even here in whatever-city-USA, nothing a baby can or cannot do makes sense except in light of the mother’s body, a biological reality apparently dismissed by those that argue against any and all bedsharing and what they call cosleeping, but which likely explains why most crib-using parents at some point feel the need to bring their babies to bed with them —findings that our mother-baby sleep laboratory here at Notre Dame has helped document scientifically. Given a choice, it seems human babies strongly prefer their mother’s body to solitary contact with inert cotton-lined mattresses. In turn, mothers seem to notice and succumb to their infant’s preferences.

There is no doubt that bedsharing should be avoided in particular circumstances and can be practiced dangerously. While each single bedsharing death is tragic, such deaths are no more indictments about any and all bedsharing than are the three hundred thousand plus deaths or more of babies in cribs an indictment that crib sleeping is deadly and should be eliminated. Just as unsafe cribs and unsafe ways to use cribs can be eliminated so, too, can parents be educated to minimize bedsharing risks.

Moving Beyond Judgments to Understanding

We still do not know what causes SIDS. But fortunately the primary factors that increase risk are now widely known i.e. placing an infant prone (face down) for sleep, using soft mattresses, maternal smoking, overwrapping babies or blocking air movement around their faces. In combination with bedsharing, where more vital normal defensive infant responses and may be more important to an infant (like the ability to arouse to bat a blanket which momentarily falls to cover the infants face when its parent moves or turns) these risks become exaggerated especially amongst unhealthy infants. When infants die in these obviously unsafe conditions, it is here where social biases and the sheer levels of ignorance associated with actually explaining the death become apparent. A death itself in a bedsharing environment does not automatically suggest, as many legal and medical authorities assert, that it was the bedsharing, or worse, suffocation that killed the infant. Infants in bedsharirng environments, like babies in cribs, can still die of SIDS.

It is a shame and certainly inappropriate that, for example, the head pathologists of the state of Indiana recommends that other pathologists assume SIDS as a likely cause of death when babies die in cribs but to assume asphyxiation if a baby dies in an adult bed or has a history of “cosleeping”. By assuming before any facts are known from the pathologist’s death scene and toxicological report that any bedsharing baby was a victim of an accidental suffocation rather than from some congenital or natural cause, including SIDS unrelated to bedsharing, medical authorities not only commit a form of scientific fraud but they victimize the doomed infant’s parents for a third time. The first occurs when their baby dies, the second occurs when health professionals interviewed for news stories (which commonly occurs) imply that when a baby dies in a bed with an adult it must be due to suffocation (or a SIDS induced by bedsharing). The third time the parents are victimized is when still without any evidence medical or police authorities suggest that their baby’s death was “preventable,” that their baby would still be alive if only the parents had not bedshared. This conclusion is based not on the facts of the tragedy but on unfair and fallacious stereotypes about bedsharing.

Indeed, no legitimate SIDS researcher nor forensic pathologist should render a judgment that a baby was suffocated without an extensive toxiological report and death scene investigation including information from the mother concerning what her thoughts are on what might or could have happened.

Whether involving cribs or adult beds, risky sleep practices leading to infant deaths are more likely to occur when parents lack access to safety information, or if they are judged to be irresponsible should they choose to follow their own and their infants’ biological predilections to bedshare, or if public health messages are held back on brochures and replaced by simplistic and inappropriate warnings saying “just never do it.” Such recommendations misrepresent the true function and biological significance of the behaviors, and the critical extent to which dangerous practices can be modified, and they dismiss the valid reasons why people engage in the behavior in the first place.

For More Information:
A Popular Parenting Book
Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent’s Guide to Cosleepingby James J.McKenna (2007). Platypus Press.

The Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper- a bassinet/crib which Dr. McKenna has recommended as one way to enjoy close proximity with a baby for parents who are concerned about bed-sharing

The Scientific Perspective
McKenna, J., Ball H., Gettler L., Mother-infant Cosleeping, Breastfeeding and SIDS: What Biological Anthropologists Have Learned About Normal Infant Sleep and Pediatric Sleep Medicine. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 50:133-161 (2007)

McKenna, J., McDade, T., Why Babies Should Never Sleep Alone: A Review of the Co-Sleeping Controversy in Relation to SIDS, Bedsharing and Breastfeeding (pdf). Paediatric Respiratory Reviews 6:134-152 (2005)