Almost all of us know that co-sleeping is not good for a baby. Now, according to a new study, sharing the same bed with baby can affect a mother's health too.
The study presented recently at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting found breastfeeding and avoiding co-sleeping bringing down stress hormone cortisol levels in mothers, Huffington Post reported. Parents are always advised to avoid co-sleeping to avoid many health risks for babies. According to experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics, co-sleeping can lead to sudden infant death (SID), suffocation and strangulation.
Previous studies have found the hidden risks associated with co-sleeping. A study published in the journal Pediatrics, earlier this year found mother and baby sharing the same bed bringing down oxygen levels in the baby's body, posing many health risks.
The current study examined the association between co-sleeping and breastfeeding on stress levels of mothers. For the study, researcher Clarissa Simon, of the Institute for Policy Research and School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and colleagues looked at nearly 200 women in Chicago suburbs and their six-months-old babies.
To measure the stress levels, researchers used saliva samples from all the participants, half hour after waking up in the morning and before retiring to bed at night. They drew conclusions based on the optimal daily rhythm in the women's stress hormones, i.e. a high cortisol level in the morning and low in the evening.
At the end of the analysis, they found women who avoided breastfeeding, but slept with their baby on the same bed, met the lowest optimal daily rhythms. Mothers may experience sleeping problems when they share the same bed with their infant, authors explained the mechanism behind the occurrence. On the other hand, women who breastfed their babies and slept separately were found having improved stress levels.
"The combination of those two things is also physiologically beneficial for mothers," Simon told Huffington Post.
According to experts, breastfeeding helps in reducing stress. The skin-to-skin contact involved in breastfeeding is known to increase mother's oxytocin, a hormone that help the milk flow and calm the mother.
