The History of Sleep Training; Part Two.
Routines and Breastfeeding
Given all of the persistent medical advice that was emerging in the mid 1900’s, parents came to see feeding as the enemy of sleep and were encouraged not to respond to any hunger cues given by their baby at any time the parent defined as nighttime. This ultimately led to a decline in a breastfeeding mothers’ milk supply, thus prompting the need for formula supplementation, and eventually exclusive formula use. Clinicians and public health experts claimed, even in the mid 1900’s that breastfeeding was ideal, however, their recommendations to cease feeding for 12 hours in the name of sleep training was a strong contradiction to the practice and preservation of breastfeeding.
As one of the pioneers of sleep training, Luther Emmett Holt detailed, “…in the first two days infants should only be fed four times at 6-hour intervals with one feed between 6 pm to 6 am (the period he called ‘night nursing’s’), because he claimed that little milk was secreted at this time. Thereafter, infants were to be fed 7 times per day at 3-hour intervals, with two feedings during the night, decreasing to a single nighttime feed by four months. At each of these feeds, infants were to stay at the breast for twenty minutes maximum. By 7-12 months, all night feeds should be eliminated, and infants were only to be breastfed five times per day” (Tomori, et.al, 2018).
Does this sound similar to any advice you have received regarding feeding your baby? Many hospitals and health care providers advise starting to schedule feedings even with newborns, and still reference Holt’s recommendations from the early 1900’s as the premise for these standards.
Don’t be too Affectionate
Along with guidelines related to sleep and feeding, these early approaches often referenced other behavioral strategies, as to ensure discipline was the primary focus of parenting babies and children. Among these recommendations was to avoid too much affection with your baby, as it was thought that hugging and kissing your baby would only encourage them to want more of it, especially at nighttime.
According to John Watson, the leader of the Behavioral School of Psychology, “…let your behavior always be objective and kindly firm. Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit in your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say good night. Shake hands with them in the morning. Give them a pat on the head if they have made an extraordinarily good job of a difficult task” (Watson quoted in Bigelow and Morris, 2001: 27).
These beliefs also shaped the idea commonly referred to as ‘self-soothing’ and the suggestion that children should be able to care for their own emotional well-being as infants; any reliance on their caregivers automatically meant that they were overly dependent and thus, the parents failed.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Why are we still devoted to advice that dates back to the early 1900’s? We have learned so much about infant brains, healthy attachment, development, human milk supply and social and emotional health. We know that sleep is not something that humans can be taught, it is simply a biological function that thrives on connection and attachment, among other things.
The sleep training industry is rooted in the historic belief that mothers must prioritize caring for their husbands and their households, and that their baby should automatically adhere to these priorities. While we don’t hear this justification much anymore, the emerging narrative is that sleep training is the only way that a mother can achieve mental wellness. This will likely be the new argument that clinicians, health care systems and sleep training personalities will use to encourage and promote sleep training; offering that structured, one-size-fits-all routines, and sleeping through the night are the only infant care strategies that yield a stable and mentally healthy mother.
No matter the trending recommendations, it is important to listen to yourself first and arm yourself with knowledge that includes diverse perspectives and strategies that empower you to parent in a way that is right for you.
References:
Tomori, Cecilia (2018) 'Changing cultures of night-time breastfeeding and sleep in the US.', in Social experiences of breastfeeding: building bridges between research, policy and practice. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 115-130.
Words by Kaylene Way Hedgepeth, 2021.
