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Managing nighttime breastfeeding in young infants
By following normal mother-infant physiology, parents can get more sleep. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) has released new guidelines to help parents manage nighttime breastfeeding in young infants. The new clinical protocol is published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine.
Deena Zimmerman, MD, MPH, IBCLC, from the Israel Ministry of Health, and co-authors representing the ABM emphasize how parents can get more sleep while breastfeeding by emphasizing the importance of mothers sleeping close to their babies and taking measures to minimize the need to get up at night.
ABM supports the practice of "responsive" feeding, where feeding is meant be in accordance with the physiological needs of the baby. However, parents must understand this need and be supported in how to manage their needs together with those of their child.
Sleep location is vital to feeding frequency. A growing body of anthropological research provides evidence that proximate mother-infant sleep combined with side-lying breastfeeding ("breastsleeping") constitutes the human evolutionary norm. Furthermore, as the authors state, "scientific data shows bedsharing to be associated with prolonged duration of any and exclusive breastfeeding."
More information: Deena Zimmerman et al, ABM Clinical Protocol #37: Physiological Infant Care—Managing Nighttime Breastfeeding in Young Infants, Breastfeeding Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1089/bfm.2023.29236.abm
