Why co-sleeping benefits working moms

Working mothers especially might feel the need to co-sleep with their baby to maximize personal contact time. Famous anthropologist, James McKenna, PhD, offers this common response to why co-sleeping occurs so often.
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Why co-sleeping benefits working moms

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One of the questions frequently asked me through the years is: Why do parents bed share? One of the unexpected answers to that comes from working mothers, who say that if it had not been for her role as a mother who could bed share, she would feel inadequate or unable to spend the amount of time with her baby that she wanted to in terms of bonding and attachment. One thing that bed sharing serves to do is to permit mother's to validate their role as mothers. This is especially true for the working mother.

Working mothers especially might feel the need to co-sleep with their baby to maximize personal contact time. Famous anthropologist, James McKenna, PhD, offers this common response to why co-sleeping occurs so often.

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James McKenna, PhD

Anthropologist & Author

Professor James J. McKenna is recognized as the world’s leading authority on mother-infant co-sleeping, in relationship to breastfeeding and SIDS. In recognition of his work in 2009 he was admitted as a Fellow into the select body of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's most prestigious scientific society. That same year and in recognition of his extensive work with television, radio, and print media he received from the American Anthropological Association the “2008 Anthropology In The Media Award” one of the top three awards presented to anthropologists by the association in recognition of his distinguished work in educating the public to the importance of anthropological concepts. He received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970, his Master's Degree from San Diego State University in 1972, and his PhD in biological anthropology from the University of Oregon, Eugene, in 1975. Professor McKenna has published over 139 refereed scientific articles in diverse medical and anthropological journals on co-sleeping, breastfeeding, evolutionary medicine and SIDS, and both here and abroad he gives over 20 lectures especially to pediatric groups and parents. Here in the United States he remains one of the primary spokesperson to the media on issues pertaining to sleeping arrangements, nighttime breast-feeding and SIDS prevention. He has also published two monographs on SIDS and infant sleep, and co-edited two books:  Evolutionary Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine And Health: New Perspectives. His first trade book for parents was published in 2008 entitled: Sleeping With Your Baby: A Parents Guide To Co-Sleeping, and was recently translated and available in Spanish and Dutch.

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