Argumentative Essay On Co-Sleeping

Co-sleeping is a hotly debated topic between mothers and scholars alike. Should children and infants sleep with their parents or should they sleep in their own space? Many people believe that co-sleeping is vastly superior and has numerous benefits, short-term and long-term, while others believe that co-sleeping is dangerous. A large divide between those who are for co-sleeping and those who are against it comes from cultural differences in the Western world and everywhere else. I will be arguing that co-sleeping is natural and that parents should be encouraged to co-sleep with their children by pediatricians and parent educators. There are numerous benefits that come from co-sleeping that has been documented in cultures all over the world.

Many people believe that SIDS increases during co-sleeping and it is for this reason that many pediatricians and doctors have come out in support of separate sleeping arrangements. However, co-sleeping is only dangerous if not done correctly. There are many manuals on how to safely co-sleep with your infants and toddlers, and when it is not a good option for you. “If a parent decides to co-sleep with his or her infant, guidelines can be provided to increase the safety of the experience” (Buswell & Spatz, 2007). If done correctly, co-sleeping helps to reduce the occurrence of SIDS because mother and infant become more in tune with each other and share sleep arousal times. In addition, they spend more time in light sleep, meaning that the infant wakes easily, decreasing the risk of the SIDS. “We suggest that, by limiting the infant' stage 3–4 sleep, bed sharing might enhance the infant's ability to arouse spontaneously in response to a dangerous or life-threatening condition. Furthermore, in the mother, curtailment of stage 3–4 sleep and augmentation of arousals should promote her ability to monitor changes in the infant's status” (Mosko, Richard, & McKenna, 1997). Breastfeeding is also a major benefit to co-sleeping. Those who co-sleep breastfed more often and for longer intervals of time. This promotes healthy infants physically and developmentally. “The most important

Out of all of the world’s cultures, the U.S. is one of the only countries that doesn’t practice co-sleeping on a widespread basis, despite the evidence that it is an evolutionary practice that has many benefits and is still used by almost all of the cultures throughout the world. Why is this? A big part of this is the mentality of those in the Western world that their children should be independent from an early age. “Western industrial values thus seem to favor early autonomy and individualism over familial interdependence. While the preference is not especially startling…it has led scientists to define the best biological interests of infants and children according to the social interests of their parents” (McKenna, 1996). We live in an egocentric society that values independence and self-reliance, which is quite different from many sociocentric cultures around the world. It is not surprising then that most sociocentric societies are non-western and practice co-sleeping. A good example of this is the co-sleep study that Morelli did with Mayan mothers and middle-class mothers in the U.S. “The Mayan parents explained their practices in terms of the value of closeness with infants; the