ABSTRACT
How a baby is fed influences how they sleep. Therefore, generic advice, such as “Don’t feed the baby at night,” makes no sense if you do not know how that baby is fed. If the mother is exclusively breastfeeding, advice to not feed at night makes her more vulnerable to depression because she no longer has exclusive breastfeeding’s protection. Sleep location is also important to mothers’ sleep and mental health. Most new parents ignore pleas to “never bedshare” because it is the only way they can manage. And mothers who are bedsharing (or with the baby in a sidecar) and exclusively breastfeeding get the most sleep and have the lowest rates of depression. However, bedsharing harms mothers’ mental health if they are not exclusively breastfeeding and is also unsafe for infants. Alternative sleeping arrangements are described.
