Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Background

Debate about mother and infant bed sharing has been polarized between supporters of bed sharing and public health policies that attempt to mitigate the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Differences in group demographics may be an important aspect in co-sleeping acceptability.

Research aims

The first aim of this study was to investigate infant sleeping location in a dataset of mothers with strong breastfeeding outcomes. The second aim was to investigate the association between infant sleeping location and breastfeeding (exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months and total breastfeeding duration). Finally, we aimed to investigate predictors of breastfeeding duration.

Methods

Participants comprised 174 women who had applied to train as counselors with the Australian Breastfeeding Association. Data were compiled from a survey of the participants’ lactation histories, including questions related to the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding, concerns about and problems encountered during breastfeeding, type of birth, medications during birth, demographics, and infant sleeping location. The study design was a cross-sectional, one-group survey design.

Results

A high proportion of participants in this study bed shared and room shared: At 0–1 month (n = 58), 33% of participants bed-shared, which increased to 58% by 6–12 months (n = 80). Infants who co-slept were more likely to be exclusively breastfed at 6 months (χ² (2, n = 116) = 4.83, p = .03) and had longer breastfeeding duration (t (62.61) = 3.81, p < .001).

Conclusions

Breastfeeding targets have been difficult to achieve globally, and innovative ideas are required to improve breastfeeding outcomes through public health messaging. There was a strong association in the current study between breastfeeding outcomes and degree of closeness of the infant to the mother at night. This finding should be brought into the discourse on breastfeeding and infant sleep arrangements, accompanied by evidence-based advice about safe sleeping and the promotion of breastfeeding.

Keywords

breastfeeding breastfeeding duration breastfeeding practices cultural norms exclusive breastfeeding

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amiel Castro

R. T.

Glover

Ehlert

O’Connor

T. G

. (2017). Antenatal psychological and socioeconomic predictors of breastfeeding in a large community sample. Early Human Development, 110(April), 50–56. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2017.04.010

Arnestad

Andersen

Vege

Rognum

T. O.

(2001). Changes in the epidemiological pattern of sudden infant death syndrome in southeast Norway, 1984–1998: Implications for future prevention and research. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 85(2), 108–115. doi:10.1136/adc.85.2.108

Bailey

(2016). Breastfeeding mothers’ experiences of bedsharing: A qualitative study. Breastfeeding Review, 24(2), 33–40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cin20&AN=117003990&site=ehost-live

Ball

Howel

Bryant

Best

Russell

Ward-Platt

(2016). Bed-sharing by breastfeeding mothers: Who bed-shares and what is the relationship with breastfeeding duration? Acta Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics, 105(6), 628–634. doi:10.1111/apa.13354

Ball

H. L.

Russell

C. K.

(2012). Night-time nurturing : An evolutionary perspective on breastfeeding and sleep. In Narvaez

Panksepp

Schore

A. N.

Gleason

T. R.

(Eds.), Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy (1st ed., pp. 241–261). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ball

H. L.

Volpe

L. E.

(2013). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) risk reduction and infant sleep location—Moving the discussion forward. Social Science and Medicine, 79(1), 84–91. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.025

Ball

H. L.

Ward-platt

M. P.

Howel

Russell

Victoria

(2011). Randomised trial of sidecar crib use on breastfeeding duration (NECOT), 630–634. doi:10.1136/adc.2010.205344

Barbosa

C. E.

Masho

S. W.

Carlyle

K. E.

Mosavel

(2016). Factors distinguishing positive deviance among low-income African American women: A qualitative study on infant feeding. Journal of Human Lactation. doi:10.1177/0890334416673048

Bartick

Tomori

(2018). Sudden infant death and social justice: A syndemics approach. Maternal Child Nutrition, e12652. doi:10.1111/mcn.12652

10.

Blair

P. S.

Heron

Fleming

P. J.

(2010). Relationship between bed sharing and breastfeeding: Longitudinal, population-based analysis. Pediatrics, 126(5), e1119–e1126. doi:10.1542/peds.2010-1277

11.

Blair

P. S.

Sidebotham

Pease

Fleming

P. J.

(2014). Bed-sharing in the absence of hazardous circumstances: Is there a risk of sudden infant death syndrome? An analysis from two case-control studies conducted in the UK. PLoS ONE, 9(9). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107799

12.

Bradley

E. H.

Curry

L. A.

Ramanadhan

Rowe

Nembhard

I. M.

Krumholz

H. M.

(2009). Research in action: Using positive deviance to improve quality of health care. Implementation Science, 4(1), 25. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-25

13.

Brown

Arnott

(2014). Breastfeeding duration and early parenting behaviour: The importance of an infant-led, responsive style. PLoS ONE, 9(2), 1–8. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083893

14.

Bryman

(2016). Social research methods. Oxford: Oxford university press.

15.

Cunningham

H. M.

Vally

Bugeja

(2018). Bed-Sharing in the first 8 weeks of life: An Australian study. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22(4), 556–564. doi:10.1007/s10995-017-2424-7

16.

Huang

Hauck

F. R.

Signore

Raju

T. N. K.

Huang

T. T. K.

Fein

S. B.

(2013). Influence of bedsharing activity on breastfeeding duration among US mothers. JAMA Pediatrics, 167(11), 1038–1044. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2632

17.

IBM Corporation. (2016). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. [Computer software]. Armonk, NY: IBM Corporation.

18.

James

(2004). An analysis of the breastfeeding practices of a group of mothers living in Victoria, Australia. Breastfeeding Review, 12(2), 19–27.

19.

Kanani

Popat

(2012). Growing normally in an urban environment: Positive deviance among slum children of Vadodara, India. Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 79(5), 606–611. doi:10.1007/s12098-011-0612-9

20.

Klonoff-Cohen

Edelstein

S. L.

(1995). Bed sharing and the sudden infant death syndrome. British Medical Journal, 311, 1269.

21.

Konner

M. J.

(1981). Evolution of human behavior development. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Development. In Munroe

R.H.

Munroe

R. L.

Whiting

B. B

(Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural human development (pp. 3–52). New York: Garland STPM Press.

22.

Leach

J. S.

Fetherston

C. M.

(2011). Analysis of the ethical issues in the breastfeeding and bedsharing debate. Breastfeeding Review, 20(3), 7–17.

23.

Magnus

J. H.

(2012). Exploring the concept of positive deviance related to breastfeeding initiation in black and white WIC enrolled first time mothers. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 16(8), 1583–1593. doi:10.1007/s10995-011-0852-3

24.

McKenna

Ball

Gettler

(2007). Mother-infant co-sleeping, breastfeeding and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: What biological anthropology has discovered about normal infant sleep and pediatric sleep medicine. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 50, 133–161.

25.

McKenna

J. J.

Gettler

(2012). Perspective 7: “It’s dangerous to be and infant”: Ongoing relevante of John Bowlby’s environment of evolutionary adaptedness in promoting healthier births, safer maternal-infant sleep and breastfeeding in a contemporary western industrial context. In Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy (pp. 439–454).

26.

McKenna

J. J.

Gettler

L. T.

(2016). There is no such thing as infant sleep, there is no such thing as breastfeeding, there is only breastsleeping. Acta Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics, 105(1), 17–21. doi:10.1111/apa.13161

27.

Mickey

R. M.

Greenland

(1989). The impact of confounder selection criteria on effect estimation. American Journal of Epidemiology, 129(1), 125–137.

28.

Mileva-Seitz

V. R.

Bakermans-Kranenburg

M. J.

Battaini

Luijk

M. P. C. M

. (2017). Parent-child bed-sharing: The good, the bad, and the burden of evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 32, 4–27. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2016.03.003

29.

Mitchell

E. A.

Cowan

Tipene-leach

(2016). The recent fall in postperinatal mortality in New Zealand and the Safe Sleep programme. Acta Paediatrica, 105, 1312–1320. doi:10.1111/apa.13494

30.

Narvaez

Panksepp

Schore

Gleason

(2013). The value of using an evolutionary framework for gauging children’s well-being. In Narváez

T. R.

Panksepp

Schore

Gleason

A. N.

(Eds.), Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy (pp. 3–30). New York: Oxford University Press.

31.

Raising Children Network. (2017). Safe Sleeping: 11 tips. Retrieved from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/safe_sleeping.html

32.

Red Nose. (2018). Sharing a sleep surface with a baby. Retrieved from https://rednose.com.au/article/sharing-a-sleep-surface-with-a-baby

33.

Rudzik

A. E. F.

Ball

H. L.

(2016). Exploring maternal perceptions of infant sleep and feeding method among mothers in the United Kingdom: A qualitative focus group study. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 20(1), 33–40. doi:10.1007/s10995-015-1798-7

34.

Skouteris

Bailey

Nagle

Hauck

Bruce

Morris

(2017). Interventions designed to promote exclusive breastfeeding in high-income countries: A systematic review update. Breastfeeding Medicine, 12(10), 604–614.

35.

Spreitzer

G. M.

Sonenshein

(2004). Toward the construct definition of positive deviance. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6), 828–847. doi:10.1177/0002764203260212

36.

Tabachnick

B. G.

Fidell

L. S.

(2013). Using multivariate statistics. Harlow, United Kingdom: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Education.

37.

Tawia

Bailey

McGuire

James

(in review). Breastfeeding: Australian Breastfeeding Association volunteers are positive deviants in Australian society. Manuscript submitted for publication.

38.

Teti

D. M.

Shimizu

Crosby

Kim

B. R.

(2016). Sleep arrangements, parent-infant sleep during the first year, and family functioning. Developmental Psychology, 52(8), 1169–1181. doi:10.1037/dev0000148

39.

Ward

T. C. S.

(2014). Reasons for mother-infant bed-sharing: A systematic narrative synthesis of the literature and implications for future research. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 19(3), 675–690. doi:10.1007/s10995-014-1557-1

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.15 MB

Breastfeeding Duration and Infant Sleep Location in a Cohort of Volunteer Breastfeeding Counselors

Abstract

Background

Research aims

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material