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Abstract
Health Care Professionals, Purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine whether the decisions surrounding nighttime infant practices (of bed-share) were influenced by health care professionals- the women participating in this research may (not) to bed-share because the information was given to them by health care professionals; women will not bed share because of the worrying implications of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and whether women participating will be found to engage or have earlier engaged in breastfeeding.
Methodology: There were twelve participants (mothers) chosen at random to take part in the research project. However, all participants were recruited when visiting the same school in County Durham, all knew each other and were all from the same socio-economic background. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire and after that open interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis to avoid societal bias or any sort of confounding variables and also to gain an insight on the quantitative research.
Results: Out of the twelve participants there were only 2, who according to the results from the questionnaires felt that bed-sharing does not hold any benefits and strangely enough those participants also both bottle fed and in both instances, the participants conveyed that their community midwife was negative about the idea of bed-sharing when discussed. The participants who did feel that bed-sharing offered benefits mostly breast-fed even if only for a short period and then went on to say that they are long term bed-sharers, and long term was in the way of years.
Out of all of the participants, there was only one that stated they had supported, without any negativity, around the subject of bed-sharing from their community midwife. 10 out of 12 who did bed sharing complained about the freqent awakenings of their babies at night where as this wasn’t the case if the babies were put to bed in their cribs. Conclusion: The research found there to be negligible influence on bed sharing by the health care professionals nor was there any influence by their partners, however other elderly household members did have an influence on their decisions as stated earlier in the discussion. Most of the grandparents of the infant had an influence on those decisions.
Introduction
The subject of bed-sharing whereby parents share their beds with their babies to sleep prompts many discussions and whether it be healthcare professionals, mothers or fathers people seem to have an opinion about bed-sharing. The western world has become extremely medicalised and with that pregnancy, child birth and the rearing of children has now come under scrutiny. The days of women following their own instincts and listening to the advice of ‘wise women’ who are full of experience and tradition is long behind us, however the idea seems to now be to try and take midwifery back to its roots, keep medicalization to a minimum and allow women to feel empowered through the experience of pregnancy, labour and ultimately bringing up their children. These are the same traditions that were once rejected.
The need for mothers to keep their babies close is an innate maternal desire and can be seen as far back as our hunter-gatherer and even primate ancestors and this includes bed sharing. There are negative and positive outlooks on the subject of bed-sharing but it seems that in our society the negative aspects are focused on more frequently. This could be the fact that as a society we are drawn to the dramatization of the negative, thanks to the spin that media sources whether it be newspapers, television or the internet seem to put on everything.
Reasons for bed-sharing differ between cultures and societies and whether practical or not co-sleeping is a way of life for them. This has been passed down through generations, even though it may not be possible to distinguish between the reasons and even look at whether it is morally right or not as all cultures will view their actions as being morally correct especially if it is what they have always done.
Parents who choose not to bed-share also have different reasons for this choice whether it be that it has been advised against by their health care professionals or the main reason which, seems to be the link that had been found between bed-sharing and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
From this I hypothesises whether :
• Women participating in this research will be found (not) to bed-share, because of the information given to them from health care professionals (HCP)
• Women participating will not bed share because of the worrying implications of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• Breast feeding habits of the individuals.
Literature Review
The decision whether to bed-share is an important one for parents to make and the advice that health care professionals give to parents especially if they are first time parents has a significant bearing on the outcome of the decisions that are ultimately made. The reason for this is that health care professionals are thought to be experts in their field and parents ultimately believe them to possess the correct information and will advise on what is best for parents and their babies.
Up until recently these health care professionals could advise parents not to bed-share and this practice was looked upon negatively. However guidelines now state that health care professionals cannot advise parents not to bed-share with their babies and have to give parents balanced information so that they can make an informed decision for themselves (http://www.nice.org.uk/search?q=bed-sharing).
A survey took place consisting of a bed 20,000 caregivrs selected frm all over the nation, revealing that mothers who share a bed with their infants account up to being a very high percentage and that percntage infant rose up to being 6.5 percent in 1993 to being 13.5 percent in 2010.
Turned out that majority of the bed sharing was done with infant only, the remaining amount was either done by children or adults. Morever, it has also been said that infants who share a bed with thier mothers or an adult are at an increased risk of having SIDS meaning Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or other sleep related fatal accidents. To eliminate this risk, the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that infants sleep in the same room, however not in the same beds as caregivers.
There are various results linked with bed-sharing, one which has been thoroughly researched is the association between bed-sharing and prolonged breastfeeding. When looking in more closely at mother-infant bed sharing, there is shown to be a clear relation between breastfeeding and that of parent-infant bed sharing, at the same time it was also found that bed sharing actually promotes breastfeeding. Moreover, data from the same study also found that there was found to be an increase in the time of breastfeeding especially in mothers where the likelihood of breastfeeding to stop was high. For many mothers, breastfeeding can be a tough thing to do. Mothers who do bed sharing with their infnts often have to get out of bed to check on their babies and this really disturbs their sleep patterns and gets them really exhausted and drained out. Hence in order to prevent that, mothers eventually start to neglect their infants, by givng up breastfeeding as a whole.
This is why parents prefer bed sharing, mothers who do not hve the time to do it during the day or who are lazy to get ou of bed therefore, they do bed sharing so that they can be with th baby and fulfill its needs too, such as that of being breast fed. The study mentioned actually took place in the University Hospital of North Tees, within the United Kingdom. There were 253 families who took part in the study, where the techniques used in order to conduct the research included semi-structured interviews and sleep logs. The aim was to find out from these methods how parents who were breastfeeding managed their night time feeds, how parents responded to their infants sleep patterns and finally whether bed sharing was a common practice (Ball, 2003).
The benefits of breastfeeding are widely known and documented, the fact that breastfeeding gives a baby the best start to life is the reason it remains highly promoted by healthcare professionals. The benefits of breastfeeding are that there are antibodies found within it, that shield the baby from infections and illness while their immune system is developing but also the bond which breastfeeding promotes which is priceless.
If breastfeeding is so important and historically so at that then as it is shown that bed sharing prolongs this practice surely health care professionals would feel it their duty to educate parents in the way of bed sharing at least to give them the correct information, which outlines the do’s and don’ts with regards to bed sharing i.e. safe bed sharing practices, where in actual fact a lot of the don’ts are common sense. Whilst following on with the breastfeeding trend it is worth to mention even more benefits, one of which is the release of oxytocin; a happy hormone that improves mood within the mother therefore the process is seen to comfort the mother and the infant and both will feel more secure and psychologically satisfied (Salm and Ward, 2014). On the other hand, “Numerous [parents] accept that in the event that you permit kids to rest in your bed from conception, it can be difficult to convince them to move out later,” Sarah Crown, supervisor of the UK’s greatest group system for folks, Mumsnet, told MNT. Besides, there are some who accept that mother-newborn child Co-Sleeping will make exceptionally used to their moms and they won’t have the capacity to get used to the thought of resting without them Also they will need to have somebody alongside them everytime they are put to bed. “I think it instructs kids that they just about need that consistent contact and association with a specific end goal to feel that security, security and trust in themselves,” Jennifer Zinzi – a mother of two who firmly contradicts bed-offering – told Fox News.
It seems to have become a westernised custom for infants to have the same sleep independence as adults and a ‘good night’ is thought to be when the infant sleeps a full night in a crib or room by itself, this is also a reason why infants are moved on to formula milk because it takes longer to digest whereas breast milk is digested really quickly and thus the infant needs feeding more frequently usually every 2 hours through the night. One reason parents in the western world like infants to become less demanding and dependent on them seems to be for them to be able go back to work earlier, however it was found to be seen by some as an abusive or neglectful treatment for an infant to be prematurely separated from its mother for sleep (Ball, 2007). Mothers who do bed sharing with their toddlers say that it is quite easy to breast feed or bottle feed their babies when they are sleeping right next to them. Some studies say that when the baby is next to you, you dont need to go through the hassle of getting out of bed to feed them because your baby is right next to you. Other studies say that your baby tends to develop a need of asking for more ad more feed if the mother is present next to him/her. Hence bed sharing makes babies consantly wake up at night asking for more because they know their cries will be answered because their mothers are right next o them. Also, babies who are used to being breast fed can smell their mothers’ milk and they also develop a habit of waking up at night asking for more.
A study where 40 participants, mother-infant pairs, were chosen to be videotaped and monitored as they all had one thing in common. They all had done bed sharing with their infants. The researchers while videotaping saw no unusal things happening to the babies, they were perfectly normal and had no strange things happening such as dropping of the oxygen level or increase/decrease in the body temperature. Such experiences were earlier reported in the findings of James McKenna, who has done ton of research work such as this before on mother-infant co-sleeping. But this obviously did not prove that such things don’t happen otherwise. The studies were just unable to prove that they do. A recent survey in Canada based on mother-infant bed sharing found that 13% of the respondents recalled at least one event in which someone (e.g., one of the parents) had rolled onto or part way onto their infants (Ateah and Hamelin 2008). In these cases, none of the infants were supposedly hurt or may have gotten injured. The sleeper was immediately awakened before any injury could take place.
In 1969 the term Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was connected to unexplained passings of babies and given the accompanying definition ‘The sudden demise of any baby or youthful youngster, which is surprising by history, and in which a careful after death examination neglects to show a satisfactory reason for death'(Peterson, 1980). The examination that has been led to focus the connection between bed-offering and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has had both positive and negative results. There are a couple of variables that have been found to have an unfavorable impact on bed-imparting and these are; whether the folks smoke or expend liquor. the genuine reasons have been discovered to be overlaying where laying down with a guardian on a couch, whether simply nodding off there coincidentally or whether it is because of the guardian’s financial foundation. In any circumstances, this is likewise seen to be a disturbing. This additionally is another motivation behind why human services experts ought to be instructing the folks they visit on safe bed offering.
There have been studies where it has been found that for infants whose parents smoke, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome becomes an increased risk factor, the interesting point about this study id the fact that it is the bed sharing that is a risk factor for parents who smoke and not that smoking is an overall risk factor, which again shows negativity towards bed sharing (Scragg et al, 1993). Similarly in a more recent study it was also mentioned that bed sharing and smoking remain an important risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome again showing a trend in negativity (James et al, 2002)
There has been much clash about whether the moms and babies ought to bed offer and whether these practices lead to a high danger of sudden baby passing disorder or other slumber related passings. On the other hand, paying little respect to the dangers, folks do keep on performing evening time baby rehearses that incorporate bed imparting, took after by bosom nourishing by moms. Another study occurred to fnd out about the relationship between baby slumber examples, dozing courses of action both in long and short run, and whether positive or negative results would prompt marking one resting example as a superior than the rest. The study considered about the issues identified with the experimentally clarified capacities of bedsharing in the middle of mother and little child, and what connection does it need to SIDS. The study demonstrated that co-dozing at any rate as imparting the room particularly to a mother who tunes in dynamic breast sustaining, is an approach to spare lives, is a capable motivation behind why the oversimplified, scientifically erroneous and misleading articulation and a simple confusion of ‘never lay down with your child’ needs to be disposed of.
Additionally, regardless of not having analyzed the thought of bed sharing or as some may allude to as co-sleeping before the conception, unexperienced parents in the example discovered it to be a somewhat helpful evening caregiving strategy, and this was rehearsed consistently. Moms imparted the beds to their babies, some did this bed offering frequently or individuals who do bed imparting to their little children, yet now starting the utilization to put their infants to rest and laying down with their guardians for more periods took after by the early morning bolstering of the infant.
“Bed-imparting may expand the danger of overheating, rebreathing or aviation route deterrent, head covering and presentation to tobacco smoke. These are danger components for SIDS,” Dr. Michael Goodstein from Pennsylvania State University, included by saying: “As of late, a study from the AAP found that actually laying down with a baby on a couch enormously expands the danger of SIDS. Of the newborn children that had kicked the bucket because of sudden Sleep Related Death, analysts found that 12.9% of those passings occurred while the overseer was on the couch with the baby.” Also not simply that, infact the vast majority of these babies passed on while being on the couch with their guardians. Furthermore, evidence was found that did show bed sharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome sharing an association among parents who smoked. However, the researchers looking at this went on to say that at both ante natal and post-natal appointments parents should be advised of these risk factors that are linked, if there are felt to be any such risk factors. Advice given by health care professionals should also include recommendations that parents should not sleep with their baby if they are under the alcohol or illicit drugs and this should be advised for either parent and never to engage in sleeping on a sofa with their infant (Horsley et al, 2007).
However this all alone has confronted much clash. A few studies, in the same way as that of AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics), claim that bed-imparting builds the danger of SID (Sudden Infant Death disorder) while some case overall. On the other hand, this case was later determined with the announcement that newborn child bed imparting is related to an essentially raised danger of the sudden baby passing disorder, especially among babies of moms who smoke. The communication in the middle of maternalsmoking and bed imparting proposes that a mechanisminvolving detached smoking, instead of the beforehand proposed systems ofoverlaying and hyperthermia, expands the danger of sudden baby passing from bed offering. (Scragg et al, 1993)
Co-sleeping, bed sharing, the family bed: Whatever you may need to call it, it means imparting a bed to your youngster consistently as opposed to resting independently. It just so happens numerous families everywhere throughout the world happen to do it. While its difficult to tell precisely what number of folks in the US co-sleeping, it has surely turned into a developing phenomena with no uncertainty: According to an across the country overview, around 13 percent of folks perform co-sleeping as their every day schedule. Indeed folks who are not even in the support of the thought of a family bed, may permit a youngster to bed impart infrequently when they feel its vital.
An occurrence called ‘overlaying’ is a major risk when sleeping on a sofa with an infant and this term has been used for many years as infants were always placed in bed with either a sibling or a nurse (http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome.html). This occurrence has been documented for centuries and is better known as the accidental smothering of an infant leading to death which is caused by a larger individual sleeping on top of that infant. Theories following this occurrence is that the death could be caused by the infants face becoming pressed in to the surface it is on be it a sofa or a mattress. Excess pressure placed on the infant’s abdomen could result in the reduction or total prevention in respiration, having said that physical attributes may not be able to be determined so cause of death is left uncertain (Collins, 2001).
In the Netherlands there was a national survey to discourage bed sharing which was an active campaign and following this bed sharing rates actually fell, coincidentally the SIDS mortality also saw a general downward trend. Breastfeeding rates around this time also saw an increase, this then portrayed the idea that in order to prolong breastfeeding times the promotion of bed sharing was not necessary (Carpenter et al, 2013). There are many problems with these findings as they could extremely bias, if there was a national campaign to discourage bed sharing it could be that just like in the United Kingdom women may have still bed shared but just not declared the fact that they did.
When infants sleep alone in a crib they are more likely to fall into a deep sleep as they have limited arousal mechanisms, whereas if they share a bed with a parent then the parent become the arousal mechanism for them and they are actually stimulated to wake up or even just prevent the infant from falling into a really deep sleep, therefore preventing a sudden infant death. It was found that infant arousal is actually prompted by mother-infant bed. In Western societies if a baby awakens a few times through the night it is construed as a negative thing, we see this in certain cultural settings where one of the first questions you are asked as a mother is ‘is he/she good then?’ which is roughly translated ‘do they sleep through the night? (Mosko et al, 1997).
However, it is actually a positive thing for a baby to regularly awaken through the night. There has been evidence to suggest that infants who bed share have an increased number of awakenings through the night in comparison to infants who sleep in a crib on their own. It is speculated that these constant awakening protect against the risk of SIDS and this could be related to the infants ability to rouse when prompted by parents presence. As a parents body is thought to be the optimal environment for an infant it makes sense that if an infant bed-shares with a parent then the babies thermoregulation can be maintained at an optimum level instead of being overheated as can easily happen if they have too many blankets for example and babies unlike adults cannot sweat sufficiently until a certain age (Horsley et al, 2007).
There was a study that found how infants sweat was initially found and was more pronounced on the forehead but subsequently found on the trunk and limbs, interestingly no sweat was found on the palms or soles of the infants (Rutter and Hull, 1979). Further study found that sweat found on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet is linked to emotions, water loss from these sites is high in mature infants from birth, this is known as therma sweating, this is a significance as even though the infants were not affected by the change in temperature, the levels of temperature did vary with the infants state of arousal (Harpin and Rutter, 1982). These findings suggest that emotional sweating occurs in a newborn infant, if babies find it difficult to sweat they cannot therefore cool themselves down and this will lead to temperature soaring, which in turn will lead to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. There has been experimental research that revealed that in many mammalian infants and human infants the presence or absence of parental contact has an immense effect on the fundamental systems such as; heart rate, sleep architecture, arousal patterns, breathing and thermoregulation. Moreover, findings from the same research suggests that human infants are designed to expect close maternal sleep contact (Ball, 2007).
Italy is known to have a very high percentage of co-sleeping to be found as they believe in it as it is part of their culture and probably think it to be very silly or immature to have an infant sleep alone. It was found that Italians believe in having their infants sleep in their rooms with them and see the American idea of infants sleeping in a separate room as being ‘unkind’ (Wolf et al, 1996). It was actually found that most of the world’s different cultural groups do implement some form of parent-infant sleep contact and these endeavours are considered to be traditional or normal practices. The conception of having one’s own infant anywhere other than by a parent’s side is simply unimaginable (Ball, 2007).
Within Mayan families it was found that infants more often than not fell asleep in the arms of a parent and were subsequently taken off to bed with them continuously sleeping with their mother from birth to age 2 or 3 years or at least until the birth of their next sibling. Strangely enough bed sharing can be seen to increase inter-birth intervals, which is in the interest of the current infant as parents can place more investment in that infant, therefore ensuring optimal fitness and definite survival. This practice is very well known today’s western culture as people in this day and age are having smaller families in order to have a healthier living. They no longer feel the need to reproduce or have more children with the fear that thy might not be able to take care of them well as compared to the way they would if they had fewer children. (Morelli et al, 1992).
However, it was found that the Japanese culture see babies as being separate biological organisms and in order for them to develop efficiently they need to be exposed to relations with others in an independent manner (Ball, 2007). It seems the beliefs held by Japan are opposite to those of held by Americans, even though before the industrial revolution it was actually the societal norm to have close contact with your baby. It was following the industrial revolution that societies seemed to develop the idea that parents try to raise their children with the intention to make them independent rather than having families living close to one another. A separate nursery was sought after along with a vet nurse for the families who could afford them. Bed sharing from this time carried a stigma and families who did have separate nurseries used these privileges to show financial success and social class, to tell people they are better off than the rest.
A mother’s presence is extremey essential for a baby, especially when it awakens in the middle of the night, upset amd crying. That is when the mothers come in to calm the infant down. Babies tend to cry everytime they have to express a need, hence the crying is massive in the first few months of their lives and then decreases with the passage of time. They cry for numrous reasons such as when they are hungry, uncomfortable, in pain, or they may simply need to be picked up and loved. For example, Hunziker proved that carrying infants for atleast 3-4 hours during the day decrease the fussing and crying of that infant. (Hunziker & Barr 1988).
Infants do normally tend to fuss, cry for no good reason but this is their way of getting what they want. And displaying such odd, unreasonable behaviour does help them in achieving what they want. These strange acts are known to be a child’s best defence mechanism. And in order to calm them down or put them at ease, they are distracted by certain sounds, scenery, som noise that is out of the ordinary or what a mother would commonly use to calm them down is breast feeding. That is how it works.
These practices are adopted by every other parent in the household. Babies often rely on their guardians or caretakers to calm them down and to help them in getting what they want so that they can go back to being happy and cheery again. We can’t in most situations determine whether a baby is hungry, upset, in pain etc and they just cry and it is up to the mother to wake up in the middle of the night and figure out the reason behind the fussing and crying. (Mao, Burnham, Goodlin-Jones, Gaylor, & Anders 2004) Most with a baby, it gets very difficult to take rest and most often you cannot even get a good night’s sleep so in order to facilite your sleep pattern as a parent of a toddler, there are some sleep tips, facts and tricks that may help you and your baby. The last thing you want to do right before bed is excite your baby. Prolonged or animated eye contact with you is one of the most enticing things for your little love. So, don’t make eye contact with your baby wile putting her to sleep or while calming her down because that would just excite the baby more and he/she would want you to not go away.
Often when mothers engage in bed sharing with their infants, they get to closely look after their baby and they do not have to worry about getting out of bed to check on them. This would be one of the major advantages of sharing with your toddlers. In accordance with that, a survey was conducted where parents were chosen as subjects of the study ofcourse.
These parents were found to believe that bed sharing is important as it protects their babies from any sort of danger or accident that may occurr at night while those babies ae left unguarded such as repiratory suffering of the baby or suffocation etc hence its preferred that mothers share the beds with their babies for protection and better care. (McKenna and Volpe 2007)
Methodology
Participants
Female : 12 (mothers)
Background and Class : constant
There were twelve participants (mothers) chosen at random to take part in the research project. However, all participants were recruited when visiting the same school in County Durham, all new each other and were all from the same socio-economic background. All participants were given the information sheet and ethics guidelines. This information sheets made the participants aware of being able to withdraw from the research project at any time and that there was total anonymity.
Procedure
Firstly there will be questionnaire’s given to the participants to answer and from these questionnaires, there will be an integrated open interview, where the information from the questionnaires will be used to lead the open interviews (both of which can be found in the appendices at the end of the project). The questionnaires will be answered by the participants where all th interviewees will be alone and as stated before, all answers will be anonymous and not shared between the participants, in order to maintain confidentiality. The open interview will be conducted at a later date in order to gain a reliable result from the research, so that the participants are not influenced in the interview by the answers they had previously given through the questionnaires.
The participants took part firstly in an in-group open interview, and the point of this was to make the participants feel more comfortable. As they knew each other I felt I could take advantage of this, as the subject of bed-sharing can be a sensitive one as up until recently it was a negative or at least frowned upon subject and thought of as a harmful action by healthcare professionals. The hope was that by helping the participants to feel comfortable and that they could voice their opinions without being judged by their peers, thus allowing the true and reliable comments to be voiced. The start of this interview was prompted with the interview questions I had prepared from the answers given on the questionnaires. When all of the participants felt they had said everything they wanted to the interviewer, open interviews were conducted in order to gain an insight on the interviewees’ responses and to check for research bias responses. The usefulness of the individual interviews would be shown when more personal ideas, practices and experiences were shared. Even though the participants knew each other it still seemed there were some things they were not willing to share with one another, not just through fear of rejection but just the fact that they wanted to keep those parent/child practices secret and sacred within their own family circle and this seemed to be a universal feeling among the participants.
Results
5.1. Questionnaires (Find original in Appendices)
The results from the questionnaires gave a good base line understanding of how the participants felt about bed-sharing and why they felt this way. Out of the twelve participants there were only 2, who according to the results from the questionnaires felt that bed-sharing does not hold any benefits and strangely enough those participants also both bottle fed and in both instances the participants conveyed that their community midwife was negative about the idea of bed-sharing when discussed. The participants who did feel that bed-sharing offered benefits mostly breast-fed even if only for a short period and then went on to say that they are long term bed-sharers, and long term was in the way of years. Also, their breast feeding habits were not reliant on bed sharing as almost all the participants claimed to breast feed their infants anytime they were able to take out time, which was usually during the day. Out of all of the participants, there was only one that stated they had supported, without any negativity, around the subject of bed-sharing from their community midwife.
Fig. 1
Chart Key
• Participants 1-12
• Yes = 1
• No = 2
• Breast = 3
• Bottle = 4
• Both = 5
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
The questionnaires that the participants answered turned out to be invaluable in the way that it prompted the participants when answering the opening questions during the individual in depth interview. The questionnaires had eliminated any pre-conceived ideas about what the individual interview would involve. All participants felt that if they had access to or were given a leaflet of some kind with information from mothers who had bed-shared, would have helped them and made them feel a lot more comfortable about making such an important decision. They all felt that health care professionals even though are meant to be impartial and give positive professional advice, a lot of them still integrate their personal beliefs and opinions into the advice they give. Moreover, it was also found that 5 out of 12 participants were smokers (occassional/frequent).
5.2. Individual in Depth Interviews (Original can be Found in Appendices)
The individual open-interviews were held in private, they were very casual so as to make the participants feel comfortable as they all agreed previously that bed-sharing was a sensitive subject, also the fact that all of the research was to be confidential put the participants at ease and made them feel more comfortable to respond to questions. The participants were permitted to speak frequently as this was more of a conversation. Most of the participants did mention again about feeling apprehensive about speaking openly in front of peers (societal bias) and felt they would not be scrutinised if they took part in an individual interview. The same reply was given to all participants and this was simply that no one would be judged within the interview and that they had the right to withdraw at any time. Also the questionnaires previously answered and the all the results of every individual would be kept confidential. All participants were asked if they would object to being recorded as this method would allow the conversation to flow and no information would be forgotten, if they disagreed then recording was avoided.
I asked my participants whether they were in favour of breast feeding or bottle feeding and majority said breast feeding, however the statistics I received of breast feeding were not even 50 percent. This is because all the participants in my study were working women, as i mentioned earlier, they were all recruited from a school where they were working at. So even though almost were in favour of breast feeding, only a few could take out time for it as they were so preoccupied with other daily routines of life. I further asked them why they were in favour of breast feeding and not bottle feeding so the responses i received were as such :
• “A baby will never feel more satisfied with bottle feeding that he/she would be with breast feeding.” (from a mother who breast fed her child)
• “Science has proven that a baby needs to be well nourished with the feed of his mother for atleast 3-4 months in order for it to have a healthier life.” (from a mother who breast fed her child)
• “I wish I could take out time from my very busy schedule to breast feed my baby but 80 percent of my time is spent at work and I cant possibly breast feed my baby at work. My boss would fire me. And then at night, I am so tired that I hit the bed almost immediately after coming back from work. So my nanny feeds and takes care of the baby. That does make me a bad mother.” (from a mother who bottle fed her child)
I asked my participants whether they put their infants to sleep in cribs and they all answered ‘yes’ regardless of whether they did bed sharing or not. So upon receiving such a response, I asked the reason behind it. And few of the responses received were :
• “Our baby sleeps for longer hours in the crib without having to wake up between breaks so that gives me a little more time to run the daily household errands.”
• “Having a crib is a blessing for a busy mother of two like myself. Hours go by and I don’t hear a single scream or those unbearable shrieks.”
• “The crib I have has many toys attached to it so it keeps my kid busy and putshim to sleep in no time. The best part, he doesn’t wake up that quickly screaming for his mother.”
I also asked my participants whether their decisions of bed shaing with their infants were influenced by other family members such as grandparents or other old people. 9 out of 12 individuals refused. However, the remaining 3 said yes.
I asked my participants whether their bed sharing decisions have inflenced their pattern of reproduction. Many of them refused, few responded by saying that:
• “I do not plan to have more than two kids because my husband and I want to provide the best suitable living for the ones we have rather than having too many and neglecting most.”
• “I wish to allocate as much time to the kid who needs me rather than thinking of the future.”
Trends Found From Interviews
• Two main trends that stand out from the interviews were that the participants had either had a relatively easy birth or caesarean section.
• All participants had 2 children.
• None of the participants had thought about bed sharing prior to the birth of their babies.
• None of the participants had researched on the benefits and risks with bed sharing.
• Feeding trends were 50/50 ratio of breast feeding and bottle feeding.
• 10 out of the 12 participants did bed share.
• It was found that partners of the participants supported the mother’s decision to bed share.
• Bed sharing was only discussed with one of the participants by their health care professional – which was negative advice and this was following birth by a health visitor not a midwife.
• Only 3 participants would not bed share again if they had subsequent children – 2 did not bed share prior and the third participant would like to try separation from the baby to see if they settle easier.
• 10 out of 12 who did bed sharing complained about the freqent awakenings of their babies at night where as this wasn’t the case if the babies were put to bed in their cribs.
• Main reasons for bed sharing were ease and lack of sleep.
Discussion
The purpose of the research was to determine whether the decisions surrounding night time infant practices (of bed-share) were influenced by health care professionals- the women participating in this research may (not) to bed-share because of the information given to them from health care professionals; women will not bed share because of the worrying implications of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and whether women participating will be found to engage or have earlier engaged in breast feeding.
In order to perform a thorough research on the fulfillment of our study’s purpose, I conducted two types of research : primary and secondary where secondary information consisted of all the information gathered from multiple studies conducted earlier by former researchers and various scholarly articles, the references of which can be found at the end of the research along with citations done where ever found necessary.
Alongside secondary, I also further aided the purpose of this study with primary research which was gathered by interviewing mothers, 12 to be exact, and these mothers were selected though randomly but the place from where they were selected was kept constant, that is they were all taken from the same school. These mothers were asked to fill out a questionnaire.The questionnaires given to the participants were a useful tool to help them to start thinking back to their birth experiences and experiences linked to this. The results from the questionnaires showed that most of the participants did bed share. The 2 participants who were that their community midwife was negative about bed sharing during her ante-natal visits and advised them of the dangers of bed sharing.
The environment used to fill out the questionnaire was kept open to all sorts of confounding variables, in other words, these questionnaires were filled out in an open environment, rather than in a room or an isolated place. Hence, increasing the risk of giving bias or careless responses. However, to eliminate tht factor, I made sure to not just rely on my quantitative research (questionnaire results), I also carried out qualitative research where all these mothers soon after finishing off with their questionnaires were taken to a separate where they were all separately interviewed, in detail.
Results showed that two individuals said ‘no’ to bed share benefits , three individuals said ‘no’ to the influence of HCP, five breast fed their infants, one used bottle, and six have had used both, breast feeding and bottle as means to feed their infants. It was also worth noting that all th individuals’ partners heavily supported their decisions of bed-sharing. this mean that their decisions of bed sharing were not at all influenced by their partners. However, 9 out of 12 women’s decisions were influenced by those of the Health Care Professionals. This should not have been the case for it is believed that these health care professionals may not be always right an that their decisions are too influenced by their past experiences. So it is more of an intuitive advice rather tha scientific based. But this is not the fault of these mothers as the research also found that none of them had knowledge about the benefits and risks of bed shaing with toddlers. Guidelines now state that health care professionals cannot give advise to parents not to bed-share with their babies and have to give parents valid, scientific information ratherthan the personal ones so that they can make an informed decision for themselves.
Earlier studies have stated that there are many several outcomes associated with bed-sharing, one which has been extensively researched is the link between bed-sharing and prolonged breastfeeding. When looking more in depth at parent-infant bed sharing there is shown to be a clear relationship between breastfeeding and that of parent-infant bed sharing, at the same time it was also found that bed sharing actually promotes breastfeeding. However, the results found were rather conflicting. Feeding trends were 50/50 ratio of breast feeding and bottle feeding, and 10 out of the 12 participants did bed share. This means 10 out of 12 women who did bed sharing with their toddlers did either breast feeding, bottle feeding, or both. The breast feeding did not have a direct relation with bed sharing as individuals decisions varied. However almost 40 percent who shared their beds with their infants did breast feed. And almost 10 percent did bottle feeding. The remaining 50 percent did both. Also, their breast feeding habits were not reliant on bed sharing as almost all the participants claimed to breast feed their infants anytime they were able to take out time, which was usually during the day. This finding is all that much in accordance with the case made by studies led by past rsearchers saying that regardless of not having mulled over co-resting preceding the conception, unseasoned parents in the example discovered it to be a helpful evening time caregiving procedure, and one which was polished routinely. Newborn children laid down with both their guardians, some being constant throughout the night cosleepers, however normally starting the night in a lodging and laying down with their guardians for a few hours taking after the early morning feed.
There has been much clash about whether the moms and babies ought to bed offer and whether these practices lead to a high danger of sudden infant death syndrome or other sleep related deaths. Notwithstanding, paying little heed to the dangers, folks do keep on performing evening newborn child hones that incorporate bed offering, took after by breast nourishing by moms. Another study occurred to get some answers concerning the relationship between newborn child slumber examples, dozing courses of action both in long and short run, and whether positive or negative results would prompt naming one resting example as a superior than the rest. The study concentrated on about the issues identified with the deductively clarified capacities of bedsharing in the middle of mother and baby, and what connection does it need to SIDS. The study demonstrated that co-sleeping in any event as imparting the room particularly to a mother who tunes in dynamic bosom nourishing, is an approach to spare lives, is a capable motivation behind why the shortsighted, scientifically off base and misleading proclamation and a unimportant confusion of ‘never lay down with your infant’ needs to be killed. This idea was again rehashed in this study and the thought of ‘never lay down with your infant’ was lessened as 10 out 12 members did bed imparting to their little children.
All the participants were selected from the same school in order to maintain a balance in class difference because people from different classes and different environments hae different beliefs so in order to eliminate that factor, the evironment was kept constant. However, there seems to be enough margin for more research where the researchers do not keep environment constant so that they can determine significant differences in peoples’ decisions of bed sharing. Also, all the women in the study had 2 children. This again may be restricting the result to a reasonable extent. And there could be a possibility that women with more than 2 children may have a different opinion about bed sharing with their infants.
“Numerous [parents] accept that in the event that you permit kids to rest in your bed from conception, it can be difficult to convince them to move out later,” Sarah Crown, supervisor of the UK’s greatest group system for folks, Mumsnet, told MNT. Besides, there are some who accept that mother-newborn child Co-Sleeping will make exceptionally used to their moms and they won’t have the capacity to get used to the thought of resting without them Also they will need to have somebody alongside them everytime they are put to bed. “I think it instructs kids that they just about need that consistent contact and association with a specific end goal to feel that security, security and trust in themselves,” Jennifer Zinzi – a mother of two who firmly contradicts bed-offering – told Fox News. Possibly that is the reason some of my participants too wanted to experience the no bed-share phenomena as they too had similar beliefs that it may make an infant grow up to be more independent or perhaps out of mere curiousity. For example, in my in-depth interview, I found that only three participants would not bed share again if they had subsequent children – two did not bed share prior and the third participant would like to try separation from the baby to see if they settle easier.
Moreover, it was also found that 5 out of 12 participants were smokers(occassional/frequent). There have been studies where it has been found that for infants whose parents smoke, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome becomes an increased risk factor, the interesting point about this study id the fact that it is the bed sharing that is a risk factor for parents who smoke and not that smoking is an overall risk factor, which again shows negativity towards bed sharing (Scragg et al, 1993). Similarly in a more recent study it was also mentioned that bed sharing and smoking remain an important risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome again showing a trend in negativity (James et al, 2002). However, none of the participants had experienced the death of their infants. This therefore, rejects the claim of smoking increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
It has also been said that, “Bed-sharing may increase the risk of overheating, rebreathing or airway obstruction, head covering and exposure to tobacco smoke. All of these are risk factors for SIDS,” Dr. Michael Goodstein included by saying: “All the more as of late, another study from the AAP found that actually laying down with a baby on a couch fundamentally expands the danger of SIDS. Of 9,073 sleep related deaths, specialists found that 12.9% happened on couches.” The larger part of these babies were offering the couch to another person when they passed on. However my study has contradicted this claim as all of my participants, even the two who did do bed sharing wth their infants, have happened to fall asleep with their babies on sofas, chairs, car seats etc. And none experienced sleep-related infant deaths.
When infants sleep alone in a crib they are more likely to fall into a deep sleep as they have limited arousal mechanisms, whereas if they share a bed with a parent then the parent become the arousal mechanism for them and they are actually stimulated to wake up or..
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