Cultural variation in infants' sleeping arrangements: Questions of independence.

Abstract

This study examines the decisions of middle-class U.S. and Highland Mayan parents regarding sleeping arrangements during their child's first 2 years and their explanations for their differing practices. All 14 Mayan children slept in their mothers' beds into toddlerhood. None of the 18 U.S. infants slept in bed with their mothers on a regular basis as newborns, although 15 slept near their mothers until age 3 to 6 months, when most were moved to a separate room. The Mayan parents explained their practices in terms of the value of closeness with infants; the U.S. parents explained their practices in terms of the value of independence for infants. The U.S. families, but not the Mayan families, used bedtime routines and objects to facilitate the transition to sleep. It was time to give him his own r o o m. .. his own territory. That's the American way. Reflections of a middle-class U.S. mother This study was conducted white Gilda A. Morelli was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah. Parts of the data reported were presented in Phoenix, Arizona, in November 1988, at the American Anthropological Association meeting. Completion of the work was made possible by a Boston College Faculty Research grant to Gilda A. Morelli. We would like to thank Alison Nash and Miyukui Nakagawa for their help in the initial planning of this study and David Wilkie and Paula Ivey for their comments on an earlier version of the article.

Infant Arousals During Mother-Infant Bed Sharing: Implications for Infant Sleep and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Research

“…Further epidemiologic studies that additionally control for potentially important factors that could affect how bed sharing impacts infants ultimately will be needed to define in what contexts bed sharing (or room sharing) might be benefical or detrimental to infants with regard to SIDS risk. Such factors include the relationship of the bed partner to the infant, cultural differences in attitudes toward bed sharing with infants, 38,61 individual differences in reasons for bed sharing, differences in parental attitudes about responding to and physical contact with the infant during the day as well as at night, 62 and the type of surface used for bed sharing.…”

“…Informed and signed consent was obtained from all mothers, and they were remunerated for their participation. All mothers were Latina, because bed sharing is an accepted practice in this ethnic group 38 and to control for potential cultural differences in attitude toward and implementation of bed sharing. Other inclusion criteria for mothers were: age Ͻ38 years; exclusively or predominantly breastfeeding (no more than two 4-oz bottles of formula per day and none after 3 pm); prenatal care; no present or past history of drug or alcohol abuse; no history of smoking or alcohol or illicit drug use during pregnancy; uncomplicated pregnancies; good health and freedom from sleep disorders; no medications known to affect sleep pattern; and choice of sleeping practice for reasons other than infant temperament.…”

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) risk reduction and infant sleep location – Moving the discussion forward

“…Morelli et al 1992;Huang and Cheng 2006;Anuntaseree et al 2008;Tan et al 2009). Although solitary infant sleep (crib and/or separate room) is a current Western parental priority (Ball and Russell 2012) bed-sharing is common among certain sub-groupsparticularly breastfeeding mother-infant dyads (Ball 2003;McCoy et al 2004;Lahr et al 2007;Blair et al 2010), recent immigrant populations from non-Euro-American countries (Gantley et al 1993;Farooqi et al 1993; Rice and Naksook 1998), and culturally distinct minority groups (Tuohy et al 1998;Eades et al 1999;Abel et al 2001;Patterson et al 2002).…”

Why babies should never sleep alone: A review of the co-sleeping controversy in relation to SIDS, bedsharing and breast feeding

“…[54][55][56][57] Ancient underlying emotions controlled by the limbic system of the brain undoubtedly evolved to ameliorate, throughout our evolution, a life-threatening situation i.e. separation from the caregiver.…”