Author: Holly Morse and Anneka Bell
Author title: Midwifery Lecturers, Swansea University, UK
Description: Breastfeeding and sleep are inextricably linked, biologically and socially. For survival, newborn infants require feeding around the clock. Doing so facilitates an optimal milk supply and proximity to the mother for protection. However, in Western societies, breastfeeding mothers face a conflict when culturally pervasive messages suggest that breastfeeding to sleep (at some unspecified point) becomes a ‘bad habit’, creating an undesirable dependency of the mother’s own making – ‘a rod for your back’. As such, mothers are often faced with their desire to continue breastfeeding while simultaneously experiencing pressure to sleep separately from their baby, space feeds and encourage self-soothing. Often this results in early cessation of breastfeeding owing to a lack of support and accurate information. The first part of this article will look at the context for the breastfeeding and bedtime issue and how it impacts mothers. The second part will highlight the key information around the benefits of breastfeeding at bedtime and during the night that can be shared with parents to educate and reassure them. 

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