Coming January 2020
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.
Safe Infant Sleep:
Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions
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.
By James J. McKenna, Ph.D. | Forewords by William Sears, M.D. and Meredith Small, Ph.D.
Paperback: 978-1-930775-76-3 | 288 pages | 5.5” x 8.5” | $14.95
eBook: 978-1-930775-77-0 | $13.99
Spanish: 978-1-930775-68-8 (Coming Oct. 2020)
Audiobook available soon on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes
Safe Infant Sleep press kit
click on the icons below to open the corresponding document
introducing:
breastsleeping
Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions
is the first book to foreground Dr. James McKenna's concept of "breastsleeping". Drawing on the historic anthropological relationship between breastfeeding and infant sleep, breastsleeping refers to the phenomenon of breastfeeding mothers bedsharing with their nursing child. Here are the basics:
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With easy access to the breast, babies will night feed without waking their mother, or even fully waking themselves, meaning both mother and child get more sleep.
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Bedsharing increases the frequency of night feedings and has been known to extend breastfeeding duration.
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Worried about safety? Breastfeeding moms are physiologically attuned to their babies, and are likely to sleep more lightly, rousing if their babies are in danger.
Further reading:
About the Author
Dr. James J. McKenna directed the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame for 22 years. He received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, his Master's Degree from San Diego State University, and in 1975 earned his Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Oregon, Eugene.
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.
About the Illustrator
Alison Kreckmann is a graduate of University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she received Bachelor of Art degrees in English and Graphic Design. Alison lives in Washington, D.C., where she works as an Editorial Assistant in scholarly publishing, and spends her spare time drawing.