Sarah The Doula

For one of my doula assignments I researched this subject, after hours of skimming and internet searching I read things that made complete sense...which subsequently made me wish I knew this years ago as a young sleep deprived mum. Take from it what you will, but I hope you find it useful....and that the 'clock watching' eases.

Infant sleeping patterns are a hot topic. One of the first questions you are asked as a new mother is ‘how are they sleeping?’ or ‘are they sleeping through yet?’ Not only are these questions incredibly frustrating as a new and tired mum, but it makes you feel like you’re missing something. Is my baby supposed to be sleeping? It’s also very isolating to feel that you’re the only one in the world that’s awake, especially when you’ve had one of those nights where nothing will settle the baby and the husband that you used to love ever so dearly is snoring loudly next to you. There also seems to be an ongoing competition to see whose baby can sleep through first, and when you scroll through Facebook for the 74th time that night looking for companionship, and your night turns into dawn, it seems like it really is only  your baby that isn’t sleeping. Ever.

To begin research for this assignment I headed straight for Google and typed in ‘Newborn Sleeping Patterns’. Immediately I was hit with ‘Establish good sleeping habits’, ‘How to set good sleeping patterns for your baby’, and ‘Getting your baby to sleep.’  The question I really wanted to know was; what is a normal sleeping pattern and should we be trying to encourage longer and deeper sleeps?

A newborn baby has a polyphasic sleep pattern. This means that they sleep multiple times in a 24 hours period instead of just once. Although we are mammals, humans are both mammals and primates, known as ‘secondarily altricial’. Unlike other primates, such as chimpanzees and gorillas, our offspring are born needing our full care and the need to keep them close in order to survive. The attachment we have with our young will regulate their temperature, heart rate and maintain nourishment and security.

Newborn babies may sleep for 18 or so hours a day, but often for only for 2 hours at a time. It is important to remember that these are recommendations.  Each child is different and the recommendations may not fit every child.

Your baby does this for a few reasons;

• He has not yet developed circadian rhythms. A baby cannot tell the difference between night and day and so sleeps sporadically. ‘During the first year overall sleep duration falls to around 15 hours, and the majority of sleep becomes concentrated during night-time as circadian rhythm’ A circadian rhythm can establish when the baby is a few months old. (isisonline.org.uk, 2014)

• He has a small stomach, and needs feeding frequently. Babies need to feed throughout the day and night, this satisfies and comforts the baby, and also maintains the mother’s milk supply. Feeding at night actually increases the milk supply more than it does during the day.

• Emotional reassurance. Babies need to be close to the mother, and touch is as important as food and warmth. Babies are designed to want to be close to us, to be held and secure. By frequent waking they can be reassured their needs are met. ‘Newborn’s cannot distinguish themselves from you, they are being assaulted by smells and sounds that are unfamiliar to them, you are home to your baby.’ (Beyond The Sling, Mayim Bialik, 2012)

• Light sleep is crucial for brain development, blood flow to the brain doubles during REM sleep and requires a lot of energy. Light sleep also reduces the risk of SIDS.

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‘If a baby’s stimulus for hunger could not easily arouse her, this would not be good for baby’s survival. If baby’s nose was stuffed and she could not breathe, or was cold and needed warmth, and her sleep state was so deep that she could not communicate her needs, her survival would be jeopardized.’ (http://www.askdrsears.com/, 2015)

Due to the pressures of living in the Western world, a wakeful newborn is not an easy addition and as we know, sleep deprivation is a form of torture. But understanding infant sleep from an anthropological point of view can help mothers feel that what they are experiencing is in fact normal. A baby waking up as soon as you lay them down alone in a cot is normal. A baby waking up after only 20 minutes is normal. An infant still waking up frequently after 18 months or 2 years is normal. Babies aren’t born knowing they are in the 21st century, so their sleep patterns reflect that of a baby that would have been born over 10000 years ago. They doesn’t know that there aren’t sabre toothed tigers around every corner.

So, seeing as an infant's  sleeping patterns are perfectly designed to help them develop and grow, should we do all we can to train them to sleep longer periods? According to Psychology Today, ‘There is an incredible disconnect between mainstream medical notions of normal infant sleep and sleep advice for parents’.

So what do parents need to hear?

'If a baby is waking, parents may not like it, but they should understand that it doesn't mean that anything is wrong, this is normal behaviour for newborns through to infancy.'

In other words, roll with it mama, this too shall pass.