Normalizing Nighttime Nurturing Is Here At Last! Pam Leo’s Book Review of We Share Our Sleep
A book review by Pam Leo of We Share Our Sleep
Normalizing nighttime nurturing is here at last! The combination of inspiration and information in this much needed children’s book can liberate those parents who already share sleep with their babies and little children and give permission to those who will want to.
We Share Our Sleep is the story of a momma telling her little child the story of how they have always shared sleep since before he was born “…just like so many mamas and their little ones all over the world. Sharing their sleep together, as mamas and little ones have done since the beginning of time…”
As the author of Connection Parenting, and Please Read To Me, I am thrilled to see a new children’s book that normalizes nighttime nurturing and also provides resources for parents, inspired by the sharing sleep story, to be informed about safe shared sleep, and reassured by the well-documented research, in the subtext and in the back, of the benefits to parents and their children, of safe shared sleep.
As the founder of the Book Fairy Pantry Project, I sort hundreds of donated children’s books weekly. In eight years of sorting, I have rarely encountered a children’s book that did not depict babies and little children sleeping alone in a crib or bed in a separate room from their parents. At last here is a children’s book that normalizes nighttime nurturing. This lovingly written and inspiringly illustrated book provides a mirror for the children who already share sleep with their parents, and a window into the way other families do nighttime nurturing for children whose families do not.
In the US, especially, parents are frequently cautioned against cosleeping with their children, in spite of the decades of well-documented research debunking those admonishments. Thanks to the work of Dr. James McKenna and others, we now have science that confirms what parents have always known is best for their children, and some strategies for how to share sleep safely. In today’s society many babies and little children spend long hours away from their working parents.For so many families, nighttime is the only time they have together to be physically close and to build that vital parent-child connection that all young humans need and are biologically wired to expect daily.
Thanks to author, Megan Armstrong, and illustrator, Eleonora D’Amico, with their brilliant combination of inspiration and information, many parents who already share sleep but have felt the need to hide it for fear of criticism, will be liberated and it will give permission to those parents who will want to.
I will be enthusiastically recommending, We Share Our Sleep, to all the midwives, doulas, doctors, childbirth educators, parent educators, and young families that I know worldwide.
RESOURCES
Kindred posts, podcasts, and videos on Co-sleeping
Watch the full video playlist on YouTube here.
The series includes breakout topics of the full interview above, including:
How Science and History Support You Sleeping With Your Baby
Co-Sleeping: Public Policy, Science, and Parents’ Civil Rights
Defining Co-Sleeping for Parents, Practitioners, Scientists and Public Policy Makers
For more information on co-sleeping, including a complete inventory of FAQs and articles, visit Dr. McKenna at the Mother-Baby Sleep Behaviorial Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, at http://www.cosleeping.nd.edu
Learn more about Pam Leo’s New Book, Please Read To Me!
