SLEEPING POSITION, ORIENTATION, AND PROXIMITY IN BEDSHARING INFANTS AND MOTHERS

The impact of mother-infant bedsharing on infant sleeping position. or ientation, and proximity to the mother was assessed in 12 breast-feedi ng Latino mother-infant pairs. Six routinely bedsharing and six routin ely solitary-sleeping pairs slept 3 nights in the sleep laboratory. Th e first night matched the routine home condition, followed by 1 bedsha ring night and 1 solitary-sleeping night in random order. During bedsh aring infants were never placed prone, regardless of their routine sle eping condition. On the bedsharing night, mothers and infants spent mo st of the night oriented toward each other; seven of 12 infants remain ed oriented toward their mothers the entire night. While sleeping in a face-to-face orientation, most pairs slept most of the time less than 30 cm apart with appreciable amounts of time at less than 20 cm. This orientation and proximity should facilitate sensory exchanges between mother and infant which, we hypothesize, influence the infant's sleep physiology and nocturnal behavior. We conclude that bedsharing minimi zes the use of the prone infant sleeping position, probably in part to facilitate breast feeding. By promoting nonprone positions, bedsharin g may protect some infants from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), s ince prone sleeping is a known risk factor for SIDS. The large percent age of the night that mothers spent oriented toward their infants sugg ests that a higher degree of maternal vigilance may also result from b edsharing.