Dr. Thomas Hale, who is well known for his research and findings on the safety of using various medications while nursing (Medications and Mothers’ Milk), has teamed up with Dr. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett to conduct a survey of mothers’ sleep and fatigue. The survey is aimed at mothers’ that have babies 12 months of age and younger (My baby is already over 12 months, but I admit I cheated and answered the survey anyways based on her sleep habits when she was 12 months old, which was only a few months ago).
The study covers a wide spectrum of issues including where the baby sleeps, number of night wakings, naps during the day, support from family and friends, method of feeding, mental health of the mother, and so on. I have done a lot of reading on babies and sleep and have never come across anything so comprehensive.
There are, unfortunately, a few questions that are vague or confusing in their wording and that might make the results in some areas less valid. For example, one question asked whether you get up at night to feed the baby. I do sometimes wake up to feed the baby, but I don’t get up, so I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. In another area, it asks about the total amount of sleep that you get per night. I had a low number (5 to 6 hours), but it isn’t because my baby is keeping me up, it is because I’m busy blogging or facebooking or message boarding or whatever. However, they didn’t ask what factors impact the amount of sleep you are getting.
The results are expected to be posted on this Web site: Breastfeeding Pharmacology.
Taking the results from this excellent survey combined with the great work of Dr. James McKenna in the Mother Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory, and other findings on normal infant sleep, will amass to an excellent collection of research-based findings on infants and sleep. This will hopefully be able to compete with the hopeless drivel that some authors put out about sleeping through the night, crying it out, and other garbage (see discussion in the excellent article Mistaken Approaches to Night Waking).
If you have a baby 12 months or under, go fill in the survey! It takes a bit of time (15 to 20 minutes), so don’t do it when you’re in a rush.
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