Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions - Softcover

McKenna, James J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930775768 ISBN 13: 9781930775763

Publisher: Platypus Media, 2020

Synopsis

In the world of pediatric care, sleep safety guidelines are controversial and often misguided. Health professionals broadly discourage all forms of cosleeping, which, along with the potentially devastating consequences, makes deciding how and where your baby should sleep both confusing and frightening. Parents who cherish the closeness, security, and warmth of cosleeping are finding themselves conflicted, concerned, and exhausted.

Cosleeping, a term which encompasses sleeping in the same room or on the same bed as your infant, is a common parental instinct driven by physiology and seen throughout human history. Despite mainstream opposition, thousands of parents continue the practice, whether intentionally, accidentally, or out of necessity.

So, why do current medical guidelines insist that cosleeping is unsafe? What is the difference between SIDS and SUID, and are they related to cosleeping? What should parents do to make a safe sleep space for their infant? If a family chooses to cosleep, how should they respond to reproach from friends, family, or medical professionals?

In Safe Infant Sleep, the world's authority on cosleeping breaks down the complicated political and social aspects of sleep safety, exposes common misconceptions, and compares current recommendations to hard science. With the latest information on the abundant scientific benefits of cosleeping, Dr. James J. Mckenna informs readers about the dangers of following over-simplified recommendations against the age-old practice, and encourages parents to trust their knowledge and instincts about what is and is not safe for their baby.

This book offers a range of options and safety tips for your family's ideal cosleeping arrangement. These include variations of roomsharing and bedsharing, and introduce the concept of “breastsleeping.” This term, coined by Dr. McKenna himself, is based on the inherent biological connection between breastfeeding and infant sleep, and provides readers with everything they need to know about safely sharing a bed with their baby. Complete with resource listings for both parents and professionals, this book teaches you how to confidently choose a safe sleeping arrangement as unique as your family.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr. James J. McKenna directed the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame for 22 years. He pioneered the world's first studies of the physiology and behavior of cosleeping mothers and infants, and has published over 140 scientific articles in medical and anthropological journals on the topics of cosleeping, breastfeeding, evolutionary medicine, and SIDS. He has also authored several books, including Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution, Evolutionary Medicine, Sleeping With Your Baby, and Researching the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: The Role of Ideology in Biomedical Science. A leading authority on breastfeeding in relationship to SIDS and bedsharing safety, Dr. McKenna is a sought-after speaker at medical, parenting, and policy conferences around the world. He lives in San Diego, California.

Review:

Dr. McKenna's research proves what mothers the world over have known for centuries―that something beautiful happens to mothers and babies when they share sleep. He helps parents feel empowered to choose the right sleeping arrangement for their family. Safe Infant Sleep is must-read for every expectant and new parent, and belongs in the required reading library of every babycare advisor. (William Sears, M.D., pediatrician, health consultant seen on television programs including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, co-author of The Baby Book, The Breastfeeding Book, and The Attachment Parenting Book.)

This is the most important book you will ever buy or give as a gift to new parents. (Jay Gordon, Jay Gordon, M.D., I.B.C.L.C.., F.A.A.P. Pediatrician, Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics, author of Listening to Your Baby)

Dr. McKenna has earned a kind of credibility that is rare, even unheard of, in the world of parenting advice. He lays out all the evidence and then lets families decide what is best for them. Read this book and become informed, and then pick up your baby, crawl in bed with them, or not, and sleep safely. (Meredith F. Small, Ph.D., Professor Emerita at Cornell University, Visiting Scholar at The University of Pennsylvania, author of What’s Love Got to Do With it? The Evolution of Human Mating, and Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent)

An amazing book by the world's leading expert on mother-infant sleep. It beautifully describes how infant sleep practices can contribute to your baby's safety and development. This book is a must-read for every new parent! (Kathleen Kendall-Tackett Ph.D, Ph.D., I.B.C.L.C., F.A.P.A., co-author of Breastfeeding Made Simple and The Science of Mother-Infant Sleep)

This is a very detailed and comprehensive narrative about everything to do with cosleeping, through the unique lens of a dedicated academic who has devoted most of his professional career to this topic. Parents who are keen to understand the historical controversies around cosleeping, and to know more about how SIDS epidemiology and sleep science are conducted, will find much to think about here. (Helen Ball, Ph.D., M.A., B.Sc., Professor of Anthropology, Durham University, Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre, Co-Director of the Baby Sleep Information Source)

Once you have read James McKenna's satisfying and intuitive book, you will finally get a good night's sleep: He will free you of worrying about ‘creating bad sleep habits' and help you stop feeling unsure about breastfeeding your baby to sleep. (Jack Newman, M.D., F.R.C.P.C., I.B.C.L.C., and Andrea Polokova, M.A., M.Ed., co-authors of Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents)

Dr. McKenna seamlessly integrates his own scientific research and that of others with history, anthropological concepts, and maternal instinct, while demonstrating how the Western cultural bias of independent sleep actually increases the risk of SIDS and poor long-term adjustment. (Nancy Wight, M.D., I.B.C.L.C., F.A.B.M., F.A.A.P., Neonatologist, Medical Director for Sharp HealthCare Lactation Services)

Cosleeping is not for everyone, but Dr. McKenna has brought it into focus as a good choice for many parents, and has rightly questioned official attempts to suppress it based on rare and avoidable events. In this easy-to-read, thoroughly informed book, parents will find what they need to know to cosleep safely. An important contribution to the literature on baby care, and especially to the attachment parenting movement. (Melvin Konner, M.D., Ph.D., Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and of Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology, Emory University, author of The Evolution of Childhood)

A detailed explanation of what cosleeping is, what it implies for the health of mother and baby, and how to practice it safely. An indispensable reading for all parents who want to decide in a conscious and well-informed way where and how their baby should sleep. (María Berrozpe Martínez, Ph.D., author of ¡Dulces Sueños! (Sweet Sleep!), co-author of Una Nueva Maternidad (A New Motherhood), instructor for La Leche League International)

As the father of four sons and as a practicing pediatrician, developmental physiologist, and epidemiologist, I can strongly support the ideas presented by Dr. McKenna in this debunking of much of the arrogant, ill-informed, and misleading advice that has in the past been given to parents by professionals who should have known better. I wholeheartedly commend this book to parents and to healthcare professionals. (Peter J. Fleming, C.B.E., F.R.S.A., Ph.D., M.B.Ch.B., F.R.C.P. (Canada, London), F.R.C.P.C.H., Professor of Infant Health and Developmental Physiology, Consultant Paediatrician, Centre for Academic Child Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol)

About this edition

• Publisher: Platypus Media
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1930775768
• ISBN 13: 9781930775763
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288