There are many doubts that haunt mothers and fathers when a child is born, especially when it is the first. One of the most common concerns is how and where to sleep in the first few months of life. A problem that can help protect the child from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). This is the leading cause of death in infants under the age of one in developed countries. In Spain, according to the latest available data from the INE, 27 babies died from this cause in the first half of 2022. It is a sudden death, but its origin and causes are unknown. A mystery for scientists, an inexplicable drama for the family.
The current scientific literature has found something to hold onto: that breastfeeding on demand is associated with a lower risk of SIDS. This is recalled in the article entitled “Bed Sharing May Partially Explain Reduced Risk of Sleep-Related Deaths in Breastfed Babies” (due to its Spanish translation) published in Frontiers magazine and by Melissa Bartick, a Harvard breastfeeding researcher and teacher Medical, was headed school. In this text, they also note that safe co-sleeping can be an additional protective factor and emphasize the mother’s position: “Separating an infant from his mother would deprive him of the protective effect of co-sleeping”. As they explain, it’s currently common to hear advice such as that the safest place to sleep for a newborn is in a crib near your bed. “And assuming there are no dangerous circumstances,” the study said, “perhaps the safest place is your mother’s bed.”
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Regarding these dangerous circumstances, Melissa Bartick explains to EL PAÍS, sleeping on a sofa, in a chair or armchair, or on a surface that is too soft, as well as sleeping next to an adult who smokes or has recently had alcohol, are considered such , drugs or tranquilizers. Babies who have never been breastfed (i.e. fed directly from the breast, not through a bottle of breast milk) and premature or low birth weight babies would also be at higher risk.
Bartick emphasizes the protection of breastfeeding: “It has been observed that breastfeeding mothers put their babies to bed safely and away from pillows. Babies who are breastfed and share a bed do not typically sleep on their stomachs or on pillows next to their mother’s face; these are risk factors for SIDS. Also, they both wake up easily, which protects against this syndrome, and their sleep cycles are in sync.” According to Bartick, it’s not just breastfeeding. Breast milk is easy to digest, so these babies wake up to breastfeed frequently, and it contains certain compounds like melatonin, that make it easier for nighttime breastfeeding to establish the infant’s circadian rhythm.
The acquisition of circadian rhythms
Recent research led by Mario Caba Flores, lactation expert and professor at Universidad Veracruzana (Veracruz, Mexico) entitled “Breast Milk and the Importance of Chrononutrition” published in the Journal of the United States Institutes of Health points to the Complexity of breast milk composition and its role in acquiring baby sleep and wakefulness rhythms and best recovery. “Boys and girls who breastfeed as needed day and night have better sleep patterns and better health because milk contains a large number of compounds, immunoglobulins and immune system cells that help fight multiple pathogens from those who are born are exposed,” she tells Caba Flores via email. “In addition, it provides the circadian patterns of maternal physiology through milk that, among other things, help her sleep better.”
After gonzalo pin, Member of the Pediatric Working Group of the Spanish Sleep Society (SES) and coordinator of the sleep department of the Quirónsalud Valencia Hospital, during the nine months of pregnancy the baby receives the immune system through the placenta and adapts to the mother’s circadian rhythm. After birth, breastfeeding will be the vehicle to continue to provide it: “Today we know that if the baby is breastfed, if the umbilical cord is cut, the baby will continue to receive information from the mother’s circadian rhythm.” “Breast milk isn’t the same throughout the day,” the expert continues, “but it does have its circadian fluctuations. For example, you have very little melatonin during the day and instead have a lot more melatonin at night to tell the brain it’s time to sleep. Therefore, these boys and girls adapt to the waking and sleeping rhythms better and more harmoniously.”
The ideal for Pin is that when the mother removes the milk, it is offered to the baby at the same time as the removal. With one condition for storage: that it does not get light. “It needs to be protected because melatonin is very sensitive to light,” he explains.
Specific support for the nursing mother
Breastfeeding contributes to a safe co-sleeping, but at the same time enables a longer breastfeeding period, which in turn has an impact on the health of the child. This is a very important advantage. “When they leave the hospital most women want to continue breastfeeding, but the truth is that after six months only 25% are still doing so. This is a point to focus on, given that the recommendation is to be exclusively breastfed for six months and then supplemented with other foods until at least two years of age,” says Gonzalo Pin.
Caba Flores adds that, beyond nutrition, breastfeeding has an important protective effect on the physical and mental health of the mother, but also that of her baby: “It is the work of professionals who accompany mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and childbirth around to be able to accompany them with an appropriate training in the field of breastfeeding, always with the support of scientific knowledge”. Something Harvard expert Bartick, for whom paid maternity leave is essential, supports: “Governments can also give more support to breastfeeding.”
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