A. Researchers describe 2 primary sleep states:

1. Active (light sleep): increased blood flow to the brain, neural cells are stimulated - contributing to brain growth. Infants are easily awaken during active sleep, an ability important for baby's health and safety.
   
2. Quiet sleep (deep sleep): a restorative state important for saving up energy necessary for interacting and feeding when the infant is awake - contributing to memory development. It's more difficult to wake infants in quiet sleep.
   

B. Newborns sleep 16-17 hours per 24 hours, older infants sleep 13-14 hours/24 hours

1. Infants cycle through active sleep, quiet sleep and waking. Each cycle is about 60 minutes long and newborns wake with each cycle.
   
2. The percentage of total sleep spent in quiet sleep is about 50% (30 minutes) in newborns, 60% in 3-5 months old infant, up to 75% at 1 year of age.
   

C. What does it mean to parents of newborns and infants?

1. If external factors disturb the infant during light sleep such as phone ringing, TV, light and other sounds, or being put down into a bassinet or crib, they are more likely to wake! To break the cycle of repeated awakenings, parents can hold their baby for 20-30 minutes till they enter a deeper sleep state before putting them down.
   
2. Infants sensitive to light and sounds spend more needed energy trying to shut out external stimuli during sleep. They could have saved this energy for growth and development instead.
   
3. Night waking may be essential for young infant's and parents' health:
   

• Signals parents about unmet needs, hunger (babies need calories for growth!), discomfort, temperature control, or pain from an illness, infection or injury.
  
• Very young infants who have longer quiet sleep are at higher risk for SID (because they can't rouse themselves up).
• Night waking is beneficial for breastfeeding parents, building and maintaining milk supply, reducing the risk of hormone-related cancers in parents.
  
• As infants get older, they need less adult assistance at night when they're physiologically ready to do so.

References:
Walker (2017) Breastfeeding Management for the Clinician

1. Birth isn't about just the baby, it's about the new parent as well.

• Becoming a parent is an identity shift, and one of the most significant physical and psychological changes a woman will ever experience.
• It’s difficult to be thrown into the job you have little preparation and practice for.
• Sometimes, the new identity feels good; for others, it can be kind of an uncomfortable transition.
• Birthing parents with greater awareness of their own psychological state may be more in tune with their children’s emotions and needs.
  

2. Human babies are born immature in many regards.

• We are born at an earlier stage of development than many other mammals.
• Humans evolved to surpass all other animals in the world thanks to our big brains. However, because the human infant head has to make it through the narrow passage of a small pelvis before it gets too large, we pay the price of being born too soon with all of its disadvantages.

         
What does it mean to us and our baby?

• Giving birth is only to transition your baby from the inside to the outside of your skin, your baby will continue to need you. Your baby relies on you to keep him/her stable and secure, day and night just as you did during pregnancy.
• On the bright side, though born immature, the human infant is uniquely adapted to secure food and nurturance from the maternal breast right from the start.
• Your breast will then be your baby’s new home. So, hold your baby close from the start day and night, letting him/her nurse to sleep to meet his/her physiological and emotional needs, and continue to keep him/her close throughout infancy.

3. Many parents overestimated their newborn capabilities

• Parents were not prepared for the frequency of feeding and waking in their newborns.  
• Unsettled behavior in the infant was thought to occur because the infant was not interested in breastfeeding or desired formula.
• Many thought their milk would come immediately following delivery
• They thought their infant would latch on easily and effectively the first time they’re put to breast.
• Parents didn’t realized the small amounts of colostrum available during their early days were sufficient for their infants.
• Unexpected work of new parenting

4. Breastfeeding is the Right Brain's work

• Newborns use their right brains because their left brains are not yet developed.
• Research suggests that as soon as your baby has arrived, the birthing parent’s right side of the brain may become dominant to make it possible to connect with her baby
• So, in the early weeks, following instructions, remembering facts, tracking feedings and diapers seem impossible.
• When the parent and the baby interact, a direct connection is created between the right brain and the right brain which makes it possible for a parent to help regulate her baby’s state and his/her autonomic nervous system.
• .The parent's job is Not to learn to breast-feed but is to get comfortable and help her baby stay calm, relaxed and comfortable.

References:
Morhbacher (2010), Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple
La Leche League, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
Lauwers, Interdisciplinary Lactation Care