Managing night-time breastfeeding in young infants

By following normal mother infant physiology, parents can get more sleep. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) has released new guidelines to help parents manage night-time breastfeeding in young infants. The new clinical protocol is published in the peer-reviewed journal Breastfeeding Medicine. Click here to read the article now.

Deena Zimmerman, MD, MPH, IBCLC from the Israel Ministry of Health, and coauthors, representing the ABM, emphasize how parents can get more sleep while breastfeeding by emphasizing the importance of mothers sleeping close to their babies and taking measures to minimize the need to get up at night.

ABM supports the practice of “responsive” feeding, where feeding is meant be in accordance with the physiological needs of the baby. However, parents need to understand this need and to be supported in how to manage their needs together with those of their child.

Sleep location is vital to feeding frequency. A growing body of anthropological research provides evidence that proximate mother-infant sleep combined with side-lying breastfeeding (“breastsleeping”) constitutes the human evolutionary norm. Furthermore, as the authors state, “scientific data shows bedsharing to be associated with prolonged duration of any and exclusive breastfeeding.”

Arthur I. Eidelman, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Breastfeeding Medicine, states: “This protocol reinforces the concept that not only is human milk the normative nutritional standard for infant feeding, but that the natural physiologic feeding pattern is one of an infant-led interactive relationship with the mother with no artificial rigid arbitrary schedule or routine.”

About the Journal
Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, is an authoritative, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published monthly in print and online with Open Access options. The Journal publishes original scientific papers, reviews, and case studies on a broad spectrum of topics in lactation medicine. It presents evidence-based research advances and explores the immediate and long-term outcomes of breastfeeding, including the epidemiologic, physiologic, and psychological benefits of breastfeeding. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Breastfeeding Medicine website.

About the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) is a worldwide organization of medical doctors dedicated to the promotion, protection, and support of breastfeeding. Our mission is to unite members of the various medical specialties with this common purpose.  For more than 20 years, ABM has been bringing doctors together to provide evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing breastfeeding across the globe. A vast body of research has demonstrated significant nutritional, physiological, and psychological benefits for both mothers and children that last well beyond infancy. But while breastfeeding is the foundation of a lifetime of health and well-being, clinical practice lags behind scientific evidence. By building on our legacy of research into this field and sharing it with the broader medical community, we can overcome barriers, influence health policies, and change behaviors.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a global media company dedicated to creating, curating, and delivering impactful peer-reviewed research and authoritative content services to advance the fields of biotechnology and the life sciences, specialized clinical medicine, and public health and policy. For complete information, please visit the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website.