A Baby’s Stress Level DOUBLES If Separated From Mom!

HollyMoms, a new study says putting your infant in a cot causes babies to lose sleep AND it doubles his or her stress level!

Putting your newborn in a cot after labour can be distressing for the baby, according to The UK’s Daily Mail. Scientists at the University of Cape Town monitored the heart rates of two-day old babies alone in a cot and while they were nursed by their mothers skin-to-skin.

When the babies were alone, stress levels rose 176 percent, and they’re 86 percent less likely to sleep soundly! They’re going to do further research to see if early separation produces long-term effects on health and development of newborns.

“It is standard practice in a hospital setting, particularly among Western cultures, to separate mothers and their newborns,” Dr. Barak Morgan, the author of the study, said. “Skin-to-skin contact with the mother removes this contradiction, and our results are a first step towards understanding exactly why babies do better when nursed in skin-to-skin contact with mother, compared to incubator care.”

HollyMoms, did your child sleep with you after birth, or did the infant sleep in a cot? Did you notice any effects?

— Anna Moeslein

More Health News:

View Comment

My child slept with me cause i could not afford a cot like many mothers here in africa. maybe that the reason of the very close relationship with mother and child here.

Share this comment at

I am a FIRM believer in co-sleeping. The baby was in your womb for NINE months and has already bonded with the mother. The smells and sounds of the mom is a natural way for the baby to know it is safe, thus allowing baby to relax and sleep. Nursing also encourages this and allows baby and mom to bond. I slept with my children and nursed in bed. The rate of SIDS is quite lower with co-sleeping babies with parents and it is a LOT easier to just roll over and nurse rather than get up to nurse. Co-sleeping is not the “new thing” to do, it is practiced a LOT in other countries, only America is behind in this practice, just like child-led weaning and other “crunchy” practices seen as awkward in the US. You are not a bad mother for not co-sleeping, it is whatever works best for your situation, but at the same time you should not judge another mother for her decisions in child-rearing (unless the child is in grave danger of physical or mental harm. And doctors/nurses in the US exaggerate the practice of co-sleeping WAY TOO much in the hospital…which is why home birth is a better option in my opinion.)

My babies only slept in a bassinet next to my bed until 6 weeks old. We aren’t into co-sleeping. I do breastfeed until 24 months, I just don’t like sharing my room, especiallly my bed. It’s a private place for my husband and I. It seems like co-sleeping is the thing to do now a days and if you don’t you are a bad mother. But my kids turned out just fine, and sleep just fine.

I don’t think that makes you a bad mother at all. In fact, while both of my kids co-slept in an Arm’s Reach co-sleeper attached to our bed, my daughter (1st born, now almost 3) did much better in it than my son (5 months old now). He hates being in it, and only wants to sleep in bed with me while breastfeeding. While it doesn’t disturb my hubby, I often wish that Liam would want to sleep in his own co-sleeper, so that I can have my space. It’s going to be even harder when we transition him into his own room. I wish that I could put him in his room to sleep but he is not having it!

Both my babies were breastfed and slept with me straight from birth, I still co-sleep with my son when he seems like he needs it, otherwise he is in a cot next to us. I certainly think that babies of any age can feel great anxiety when seperated from mum or dad.

this study doesn’t take in to account mothers who want to nurse and can’t or premature babies that have to be in an incubatior for lung developement weight gain and to regulate their body temperature

Yes, both my children slept with me after they were born. I breastfed them both, and did skin to skin whenever possible. But I did also have to put them in the tiny roll away “beds” every once in awhile for me to fully sleep. I wouldn’t dare sleep with them all the time, fearing they would fall or I could hurt them while sleeping, so that was the responsible thing to do. My husband also held them when I wasn’t, so if I had to guess, they probably spent more time in our arms than in the roll away beds.