More Mothers Missing Sleep

There's an interesting article that ran in the New York Times last week about the increasing number of mothers using sleep aids. If you have a newborn, that might sound absurd at a time when you find yourself falling asleep at every turn. Brace yourself, because these tired days into sleepness nights don't necessarily end when the baby can sleep through the night.

The Sleep Foundation has released some startling statistics concerning women and sleep. The average woman aged 30-60 only gets approximately 6 hours and 41 minutes of sleep on week nights. They are more likely than men to encounter sleep difficulties. Nearly three in ten women use some type of sleep aid at least a few nights a week. There are many possible reasons for them but sleepless nights are an increasingly common phenomenon, particularly among mothers.

"Did I send that e-mail to my client? Is the permission slip for pictures due today? Do Carrie’s dance shoes still fit? Is Girl Scouts on this week?" These are the kinds of thoughts that Susan Stoga runs through when she should be sleeping.

Dr. Katherine M. Sharkey, a sleep medicine expert provides an accurate assessment of what's going on: "There’s no release valve to let things fall by the wayside during the day, and that’s creeping into women’s night. So they’re waking up in the middle of the night with a million things running through their heads: things that may not be earth shattering, but it’s real stuff and it causes serious sleep deprivation."

Dr. Meir Kryger, director of sleep medicine at Gaylord Hospital in Connecticut, says that women, "are really paying the price in sleep for their current role in society." She's talking about the way women today often have to juggle motherhood, work full-time, and then are expected to clean the house, cook all the meals and the list can go on to include many other roles.

"I think so much of what drives it is our need for control," says Ana Marie Alessi, a single mother from New Jersey. "We feel like it’s our job to anticipate any variant on The Day, much less The Life — If it rains will I need to change my schedule so I can drop off my kid and he doesn’t need to ride his bike in a downpour? We try to ward off anything that can interfere with the Good Day."

When sleep's elusive, there are many ways to help alleviate the never-ending thoughts. Daily exercise, a diet that includes carbohydrates in the evenings, and meditation or breathing exercises are just a few examples. There is no one-solution-fits-all, however, so it's important to find which methods work for you.

Do your thoughts keep you up at night? What kind of things do you do to get back to sleep?

Sleep Medication: Mother’s New Little Helper [NYTimes]
Women and Sleep [NSF]

Enter to Win a Year of Fresh Produce from Baby Brezza!

Baby Brezza, a top-rated baby food appliance producer, is hosting a fantastic giveaway until the end of November. Winners will receive one year's worth of fresh fruits and vegetables for their family for an entire year!

In order to enter, simply add The Baby Brezza One Step Baby Food Maker to your gift registry. Once it's been added, send a link to your registry to sweepstakes@babybrezza.com, with your full name, address, preferred email address and phone number. The winner will be announced by December 16th, 2011. The winner will receive grocery gift cards totaling $2,500. Only one entry per person is permitted and contestants must keep an active registry with the item on it until the end of November.

You can read our recent review of The Baby Brezza One Step Baby Food Maker here.

Friday Wrap-up: Parenting and Pregnancy News

'The Other F Word': Jim Lindberg on punk rock fatherhood [LATimes]

Can Your Name Affect Your Personality? [ModernMom]

When Can You Add Spice to Baby Food? [Just the facts baby]

Mothers buy into freeze-frame parenting [LATimes]

Bones reveal 18th and 19th-century breastfeeding fads [NewScientist]

The 2011 Best Illustrated Children's Books [NYTimes]

The Next Nine Months: Postpartum Exercise Time Line [lilsugar]

"Autism can be an advantage in life," says scientist [DailyMail]

How to Reveal a Pregnancy Over Facebook Chat [thehairpin]

That Baby Really Does Roar Like a Lion [DiscoveryNews]

Breastfeeding Lowers Blood Pressure, Stabilizes Blood Sugar in Mothers

Women who were labeled high risk during pregnancy due to preeclampsia or gestational diabetes can gain valuable health benefits by breastfeeding. Two studies released this week have shown that breastfeeding lowers blood pressure and stabilizes blood sugar.

Women who develop preeclampsia during their pregnancies or who have a history of high blood pressure should consider breastfeeding for more than six months. Preeclampsia, characterized by high blood pressure, affects one in ten pregnancies. It can cause a handful of serious complications during pregnancy but it's detrimental effects don't stop there. Many studies have found long-term cardiovascular problems for women who experience the condition, including high-blood pressure. A new study found that breastfeeding could counteract that problem. Researchers looked at 56,000 new mothers and discovered that mothers who breastfed at least six months were less likely to experience high blood pressure over a fourteen-year period. The odds were 22 percent higher that a woman would develop high blood pressure if she did not breastfeed. Smoking habits, diet and exercise were taken into account when calculating results. However, the researchers could not rule out the possibility that factors such as stress or underlying health conditions that can make breastfeeding difficult were driving up blood pressure as well. 

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente in California are echoing the call for women to breastfeed due to it's stabilizing effect on blood sugar levels. Similar the preeclampsia, gestational diabetes during pregnancy can also can carry long-term effects for the mother. Women who develop the condition are more likely to develop diabetes down the road. Researchers found that women who breastfed with little or no formula supplementation had lower blood sugar levels six-nine weeks postpartum, even if they were obese. Women who exclusively or mostly breastfed also exhibited fewer signs of pre-diabetes. 

These recent studies add to a growing body of evidence revealing the positive health effects of breastfeeding for the mother, not just the baby. Breastfeeding has already been linked to lowered risks of developing postpartum depression, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. It can also aid in weigh loss, costs less than formula and can be easier because it requires less prep time than formula.

Why do you plan to breastfeed?

Breastfeeding tied to lower blood pressure risk [reuters]

Pre-eclampsia: a lifelong disorder [MJA]

Preeclampsia [PregnancyWeekly]

Long-term implications of gestational diabetes for the mother. [NIH]

Fully or Mostly Breastfeeding Women Have Lowest Blood Sugar Levels After a Gestational Diabetes Pregnancy [HealthCanal]
Why breastfeeding is important [womenshealth.gov]

August Babies Less Likely to Excel Academically

If you had your baby in August, you might want to consider holding them back from kindergarten for a year. The youngest children to enter grade school are the least likely to get a college education down the road and more likely to struggle academically, according to new research.

Researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reviewed the records of 48,500 children in England. They noticed that children born in August were 20% less likely to receive a college education and more likely to attend a vocational school. Teachers described 49% of August-born children to be "very ready" to start secondary school, whereas 63% of September children were described that way. At the age of seven, August-born children were more likely to be bullied than September children and felt less confident academically

A previous study by the group bolsters these results - the researchers discovered in 2007 that August babies did worse in school overall than their slightly older peers. Even when parents tried to read to the children more in an effort to help them catch up, the results remained the same.

The researchers believe there is a disadvantage for August-born children because they are inevitably the youngest in their class. Children that are a year younger than their classmates are more likely to fall behind academically and could continue to have trouble catching up throughout their school years.

Do you have an August-born baby?

When You Are Born Matters: The Impact of Date of Birth on Child Cognitive Outcomes in England [IFS]

August babies are less likely to go on to top universities, says study [TelegraphUK]

Best of the Web: Parenting and Pregnancy News

Hugh Grant Welcomes Baby Girl [USWeekly]

Seeing Tantrums as Distress, Not Defiance [NYTimes]

Many Parents Experiencing Baby Name Remorse [CBS]

Pregnant Man Thomas Beatie Introduces Kids [People]

A Pain In The Wrist [FitPregnancy]

Breastfeeding Lowers Blood Sugar After Gestational Diabetes [HealthCanal]

The Pregnant Athlete: Effects on the Unborn Baby [Yahoo]

Mothers to risk arrest in "milk and cookies" event outside FDA [WashTimes]

Power Laboring Positions [FitPregnancy]

Toddler air travel: Surviving security and braving the pat-down [CNN]

J&J Boycotted Over Carcinogens in Baby Bath Products

The brand name Johnson & Johnson has become almost synonymous with baby bath products over the decades, but an international coalition of health and environmental groups is calling for their boycott. The boycott is specifically aimed at some of the company's bath products, which contain two chemicals that are known carcinogens.

The coalition of groups, including the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, has been urging Johnson & Johnson to remove harmful chemicals from their baby shampoo, most notably, the carcinogens dioxane and quarternium-15, a substance that releases formaldehyde. Private testing found unsafe levels of these chemicals in certain bath products, even though they were not listed as ingredients on the label. The company has responded to the request by saying they are gradually phasing out the chemicals, even though they stand by the safety of quarternium-15. However, phasing out the chemicals has been met with disdain because the company already sells the same products without the carcinogens in many countries - just not in the United States, Canada and a handful of other countries. Among the groups calling for the boycott are The Breast Cancer Fund, Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace, American Nurses Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Healthy Child, Healthy World. The products containing the chemicals are Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo, Oatmeal Baby Wash, Moisture Care Baby Wash, and Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash. 

Do you use Johnson & Johnson bath products?

Baby's Tub Is Still Toxic [The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics]

Consumers lash out at Johnson & Johnson over harmful chemicals in baby shampoo [NYDailyNews]

Researcher Says Co-Sleeping Prevents Stress on Baby's Heart

A recent study of the effects of co-sleeping is reigniting an age-old debate across the web. Dr. Nils Bergman suggests that an infant should sleep next to the mother for the first three years of life to reduce stress and promote a healthy heart. He argues that instances where babies are killed while co-sleeping had other factors involved and reveals the physiological benefits a child can receive through sleeping next to the mother.

Dr. Bergman is the creator of Kangaroo Mother Care, a program in the UK that fosters better health in infants through skin-to-skin contact with a caregiver. It is slightly different than Kangaroo Care in the US, which follows the same principle of skin-to-skin contact for better health outcomes but is usually only encouraged for preterm infants.

Dr. Bergman defends the practice of co-sleeping after studying the physiological effects of it in 16 infants. He discovered that babies hearts were stressed three times as much when slumbering in a cot as opposed to on the mother's chest. He also found a disruption in the brain's sleep cycles when babies were left to sleep in a cot. He repeats an argument heard from many advocates of co-sleeping: "When babies are smothered and suffer cot deaths, it is not because their mother is present. It is because of other things: toxic fumes, cigarettes, alcohol, big pillows and dangerous toys."

Many studies have shown benefits from co-sleeping for the baby and mother, but infant deaths (an average of 64 per year) from co-sleeping have made the practice highly debatable. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against bed-sharing, although quite a few physicians, most notably Dr. William Sears, believe it to be a healthy practice if done safely. You can read about safe co-sleeping habits here.

What are your thoughts on co-sleeping?

Babies 'should sleep in mother's bed until age three' [TelegraphUK]

Can Co-sleeping Work For Your Family? [MedicineNet]

Cosleeping and Your Baby [KidsHealth]