New research has found that women who share their bed with their baby for at least an hour a week are more likely to breastfeed for longer.
The Durham University study, which has been published in Acta Paediatrica, followed 678 expectant women who provided their breastfeeding and bed-sharing behaviour for 26 weeks after the birth of their baby. Bed-sharing was defined as being at least one hour a week.
When it came to bed-sharing, the study found that 44% “rarely” or “never” bed-shared, 28% did so “intermittently” and 28% did so “often.”
When they looked at bed-sharing and breastfeeding, it found more participants who bed-shared “often” reported strong prenatal breastfeeding intent at 70%, compared to 57% who shared "intermittently" and 56% women in the “rare” bed-share groups.
Talking about the study, Professor Helen Ball of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab in the Department of Anthropology said: “”We previously found that mothers who bed-share were twice as likely to breastfeed their baby for at least six months than mothers who began breastfeeding but didn’t bed-share. In this paper we show that mothers with the strongest intent to breastfeed are the ones who sleep with their babies the most.”
Acknowledging the risk of co-sleeping and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Professor Ball said: “Given the complex relationship between bed-sharing and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) appropriate guidance balancing risk minimisation with support for breastfeeding mothers is crucial.”
“These mothers therefore need information on how to make bed-sharing while breastfeeding as safe as possible.”
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