Are you my Mommy?

Are you my Mommy?
Are you my Mommy?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Co-Sleeping...It's Okay

Warning:  I am currently upset and thus my grammar, spelling, and likely my usual wit will suffer (I do hope I am witty, but can't utilize brain cells for that discussion right now).

First off, here is a link to the article that sparked my explosion of emotion (although I am calming as my head is working to return to its typical logical state) http://news.yahoo.com/milwaukee-runs-provocative-ads-wake-parents-dangers-co-213117311.html

Milwaukee has a high infant mortality rate, purported to be worse than third world countries in some portions of their population. While this is definitely alarming, I am concerned that their new ad campaign will simply serve to create a bad and ill conceived impression  that co-sleeping is inherently dangerous. I am here to bring this act out of the closet and tell you it is not dangerous.  Both, my child, husband, and I have all lived to tell the tale.  And we are all happy, well rested, and well fed, especially my son Mr. B, who enjoyed the cozy co-sleeping that allowed ease of breast feeding.  He has never had a drop of formula and I do believe that co-sleeping was helpful in achieving this aspiration that initially I was not sure we would complete (a year long goal is lofty for new parents, so often I would focus on one day or one hour at a time, when I was tired).  I have a good friend and mother to 4 wonderful and healthy and well adjusted children and guess what K co-slept with all her kids.  Amazing I know.  She is the inspiration and possible originator (I am a little foggy here) of the saying that as long as everyone in the family is fed, rested, and recently bathed then everything is okay.

By the way, my co-slept son who is soon to be 17 months old is currently sleeping in his crib alone for a long afternoon nap...and yes he is well fed and growing appropriately.  I do hope that Milwaukee does not next show a bottle of poison as an anti-vegetarian ad.  I can not predict my emotional response or the explosion that I will have on this blog.

If you are one of those people who likes to do research and not just let media spoon feed you, here are some interesting links.

U.S. infant mortality rate compared to the rest of the world  This is not a pretty thing...and co-sleeping of course when done correctly is not the reason. How about lack of quality pre-natal care or coverage for this care?

Dr. Sears, yes a real doctor, discusses co-sleeping, how to do it safely and the benefits


The Compromise: Co-Sleeping with your infant for the best interest of everyone in your family and other people not understanding.  Thus, feeling like you have to hide this.

The Sweet Reward:  The Milwaukee ad could get people to start talking about SAFE ways to do this (fingers crossed here).  My family is happy, well rested, fed, and yes my son sleeps well and on his own now.

I have never typed so fast and so emotionally....
Tracy  

PS my post title is not witty...I mentioned that though...

1 comment:

  1. My favorite professor (Dr. James McKenna) in college is the director of a mother-infant sleep laboratory, and a big proponent of co-sleeping. My time spent in his anthropology classes convinced me that co-sleeping was the way to go.

    I sold the idea to my sister when she had a baby in March. And then I had my own baby, and was disappointed to find that co-sleeping didn't work for us. To be fair, I didn't give it much of a shot.

    Anyway, despite the fact that it is not the sleeping arrangement we chose in the end, I also find all of the negative propaganda quite upsetting, and agree that information about safe ways to co-sleep, and bed-share in particular, would be much more useful.

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