Judy, I agree.  Don't we now have a recent study of 8,000 mother/baby dyads showing clearly that breastfeeding mothers get more sleep?  Haven't we LLL mother seen again and again that night weaning does not stop night waking?  For goodness sake, I don't know of many babies who are just awaking for specific feeds, rather, they are also nursing for comfort, and the need for comfort varies from night to night.  I have seen so many mothers try to wean by reducing scheduled feeds and they are usually pleasantly surprised to learn that babies are smart enough to simply reschedule the missed nursing session to another time.  Mothers end up learning a lot about babies, bonding and nursing in this way.  :-)  If a baby is night weaned, they have not "learned a new skill" they have simply learned that their comfort must be a pacifier or something else.  In any case, the worst is when a mother weans her child thinking it will allow her more sleep and in the end she gets less sleep and no longer has such a wonderful tool to soothe her baby.

On May 11, 2013, at 9:21 PM, LACTNET automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ~~~ I think part of the issue is that we aren't always clear that yes sleep 
> deprivation is indeed a difficult and sometimes dangerous thing but also 
> that  sleep interruption and sleep deprivation are not the same.  Babies who 
> are breastfeeding normally have moms whose bodies are capable of  brief 
> awakenings to feed, then easily go back to sleep. Mom will get plenty of  total 
> sleep. If babies are up for long periods with distress or  inefficient 
> feedings, this rhythm can be disturbed, of course. The fact that a  mom with a 6 
> month old has to focus on a full night of uninterrupted sleep  because she 
> must leave this infant for the day, then take away night chances to  get 
> emotional and physical nourishment  needed at this age, to get up again the next 
> day, is in my opinion one of the  great shames of US "maternity protection" 
> policies. The normal needs of infants  to feed and be nourished at night 
> was written up recently in Pediatrics, stating  that night feedings make an 
> important contribution to overall nutrition at least  until 6 months, and I 
> think if we really look longer at normal human physiology  and development, 
> the minimum might be more like 6-9 months. Some babies can push  all their 
> needs to daytime hours ( possibly an evening nursing if baby isn't  already 
> down for the night when mom gets home from work, or is that only where I  
> live...) but many would not do this naturally. I wonder about the long term  
> consequences of pushing development  this way, in terms of understanding  hunger 
> and satiety, and respecting one's own emotional needs.
> Peace,
> Judy


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