Are you too staring at the headline of this article in amazement?! Well, obviously babies should be made to sleep on their backs! Then why are so many new mommies not following the norm? What unimaginable reason is prompting them to put their little angels to sleep on their side (or tummy) even when most parenting guidelines, as well as research, strongly suggest that babies should sleep on their backs?!
We reveal the deep, dark secret to you…
A new study has revealed that only 43.7% of the mothers in the US make their toddlers sleep on their tiny backs, or intend to do the same every time their happy camper decides to take a snooze break [1]. The rest of them do not follow this safe and sound sleeping practice.
This research was carried out by the Yale School of Medicine and was published in the widely popular journal Pediatrics. The study analyzed 3,297 mothers who had children aged between 2 to 6 months. The aim of the study was to find out the sleeping positions mothers most preferred for their babies and why.
And yes, you may have thought that most of the mothers would have said, “I make my baby sleep on their back obviously, duh!” The thing is that they didn’t. While nearly 44% chose the resting on the back technique for their baby, a whopping 77% confessed that even though they had all the intentions to make their baby sleep in this position, they were unable to follow through with it on a regular basis [2].
The researchers of the study spoke to CNN regarding these disturbing statistics, and Dr. Eve Colson (one of the researchers of the study), explained, “What was new and hadn’t been explored before was this idea of what people intended to do versus what they actually do. What we found was that people intended to put their baby on their back but didn’t always do that.”
But that still doesn’t answer why mothers do it, and we know that most of you unsuspecting mommies want to know just why fellow moms wouldn’t put their babies on their back. Well, here it is. The ‘why’ behind it all!
Most of the women surveyed said that they ignore ‘safe sleeping’guidelines because they feel it is not exactly their decision to make how their baby sleeps. *jaws drop in shock everywhere*
That’s not all. Many women went on to say that the decision to choose the sleeping position was of their baby’s rather than theirs or even of another family member who knew better. And according to the study, most mothers said that the ideal sleeping position in such a case would be to lay the baby flat on their stomach.
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Many mothers were also advocates of not making their babies sleep on their backs as their family members gave them the ill-advise that that this position can cause the baby to choke and is in all likelihood not the most comfortable position for a newborn [3]. Such misconceptions could prove fatal for the baby. So, as mothers you should be careful of the position your baby sleeps in [4].
The ideal way to put your baby to sleep is on a soft (but not too soft) bed and on their back. So, if you are a mother and you are reading this, make sure you take the sleeping affairs of your baby into your own hands instead of trusting old and outdated information. It’s your right to look after the well-being of your baby.
