Ther are pages and pages of reputable scientific studies showing babies crying do not trigger the same hormones and instinct women have.
Same at ther are pages and pages of study showing leaving a baby to cry is actually beneficial to the entire family. Breast feeding back to sleep is damaging (apparently)
And there will be pages and pages of studies showing the opposite.
www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=166701
Most of the babies that woke during the night were boys. These babies considered transitional sleepers were also assessed as being more irritable or difficult. They were also more likely to be breast-fed. The mothers of these transitional sleepers were more likely to be depressed and have greater maternal sensitivity, the study authors found.
The authors concluded that genetic factors could play a role in difficult temperaments. "Families who are seeing sleep problems persist past 18 months should seek advice," Weinraub advised.
Babies should learn how to fall asleep without help, the researchers added. "When mothers tune in to these nighttime awakenings and/or if a baby is in the habit of falling asleep during breast-feeding, then he or she may not be learning how to self-soothe, something that is critical for regular sleep," Weinraub said.
More research is needed to explore the link between mothers' depression and infant awakenings, the researchers suggested in the news release.
"Because the mothers in our study described infants with many awakenings per week as creating problems for themselves and other family members, parents might be encouraged to establish more nuanced and carefully targeted routines to help babies with self-soothing and to seek occasional respite," Weinraub noted. "The best advice is to put infants to bed at a regular time every night, allow them to fall asleep on their own and resist the urge to respond right away to awakenings."
The study was recently published in Developmental Psychology.
-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas