Waking at night is normal

Research suggests 50% of all UK babies have shared their parents’ bed by the time they are 3 months old. Figures for breastfeeding babies appear to be much higher, 70-80%.


When we consider the relative immaturity of the human infant - we are born relatively early compared to other mammals - and the constituents of human milk, we can see that human babies need to feed regularly and they are dependent on close promixity.

Close proximity helps regulate temperature and breathing rate. The cultural expectation that breastfeeding parents sleep separately from their babies doesn’t appear to fit with the evolutionary perspective.

We know that lower rates of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is associated with breastfeeding, but the reason for the association is not always clear. It is thought that the way breastfeeding babies sleep may be part of the story – that breastfeeding babies rouse more naturally and they benefit from increased maternal-infant interaction.