Shared Sleep is Done by All Other Mammals… So why don’t we do it as humans?
On today’s episode of the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined for a one-of-a-kind conversation with Professor, Anthropologist, and Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Center, Dr. Helen Ball. Together they celebrate the launch of Dr. Helen’s BRAND NEW BOOK, “How Babies Sleep: A Science Based Guide to the First 365 Days and Nights”.
You don’t have to be familiar with her work to quickly notice… Dr. Helen Ball is incredibly impressive. She has spent years as an Anthropologist studying human behavior, and studying the behavior of mammals, and her research brings to light a lot of questions about the way that we think babies should sleep– particularly in Anglophone (English Speaking) countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, and others.
Mammals– with the stark exception of humans– generally sleep with their babies. It makes sense! Mammal babies need that safety because we don’t create nests, and because the process of creating milk requires frequent attention. Throughout her incredible and enlightening conversation with Greer, it becomes so apparent that our cultural mindset surrounding shared sleep is very skewed– not just from an anthropological standpoint, but also beneficially.
Regardless of your struggles as a parent, one thing that is absolutely true: by listening to the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, you’re already choosing to improve yourself, to create space, and to grow as a parent. If you’ve found value in this conversation, be sure to pass along the episode to a friend! And to learn more about Dr. Helen’s incredible research on the Sleep of Babies, be sure to buy her BRAND NEW book by clicking here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Babies-Sleep-Science-Based-Nights/dp/0306834634/ & gain more free resources by visiting https://www.basisonline.org.uk/
Key Takeaways:
- More People Have Taken Part in Bedsharing, Culturally, Than Many Had Initially Realized
- In Western Society We Often Downplay What it is that Babies Expect
- Every Other Mammal Has The Mothers Sharing Sleep With Their Babies… It Makes Sense that we Should Do the Same
- Human Babies Evolved in the Context of Human Milk
- More Sleep as Babies is spent in REM Sleep Than Any Other Point in Our Lives
- The Biggest Fear for Parents Around Bed Sharing is BreastFeeding
- Every Family Needs to Know How to Bedshare, whether they are Planning to Or Not
- “Sleep Pressure” is an Essential Concept to Grasp & Can Alleviate a lot of Frustration
More on Dr. Helen Ball:
- Dr. Helen’s BRAND NEW Book: “How Babies Sleep”: https://www.amazon.com/How-Babies-Sleep-Science-Based-Nights/dp/0306834634/
- “BASIS” Official Website: https://www.basisonline.org.uk/
- Durham Infancy & Sleep Center: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/durham-infancy-sleep-centre/
- Professor Profile: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/h-l-ball/
- LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/helenlball
Ready to Connect with Greer?:
- “Nurture Neuroscience” Website: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgreerkirshenbaum/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greerkirshenbaum/
- FREE GUIDE, “Nurture Your Baby’s Stress: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/nurture-your-babys-stress
- FREE GUIDE, “Manage the Stressors & Triggers of Parenting”: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/manage-the-stressors-of-parenting
- Order “The Nurture Revolution” Book: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/the-nurture-revolution