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The Benefits Of Co Sleeping

Decent Essays

The goal of this essay is to look at the pros and cons of co-sleeping through the analysis of the benefits for both the baby and the parents, the evolutionary argument, and the risks and downfalls associated with the practice. Co-sleeping offers health benefits through additional breast milk intake, an improved attachment bond, and improving a child’s ability to fall asleep. However, the negatives include many risks, most of which can be avoided with proper care, but which put an infant in danger of SIDS. These can take the forms of suffocation factors, environmental hazards, and the lesser problem of sleep-dependency. I take the position that co-sleeping is healthy and natural, and that I would rather see it encouraged and not discouraged, but I also recognize that there are a variety of risks involved with the process. Many of the benefits of co-sleeping stem from the interactions that can readily happen within the open, close proximity environment co-sleeping enables. One of these benefits is breast feeding, which can influence many other aspects of infant health and behavior. Breast feeding is much easier to perform when co-sleeping, as the infant is nearer to the parent and the position already accommodates for mother and baby’s comfort. Breast feeding and co-sleeping a cyclical relationship, as each promotes the other. A mother that co-sleeps will find herself breast sleeping more throughout the night and this nightly breast feeding will facilitate more co-sleeping

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