One of the most difficult aspects of caring for a newborn baby is the sleep deprivation that comes with it. Most new parents find night waking and nighttime breastfeeding feeds the most exhausting part of the early days and weeks of parenthood.
As you start each day feeling as though you’ve barely slept a wink, you might start to question the wisdom of breastfeeding. The truth is, though, no matter how your baby is fed, night time feeds can be challenging.
Understanding why night feeds are so important for your baby and your breast milk supply can help you cope better with the lack of sleep.
Here are 7 reasons why nighttime breastfeeding is so important:
#1. Babies have tiny tummies
A newborn’s tummy is tiny. At birth, it has the capacity to hold up to about 5 ml of fluid, and gradually increases after that.
As well as this, human milk is perfectly designed for human babies, which means it is quickly and easily digested. That’s why newborn babies need frequent feeds, both during the day and at night.
For most babies, night feeding patterns are similar to day feeding patterns. This could mean your baby feeds 2-hourly, around the clock, which is a normal breastfeeding frequency for a new baby.
The good news is that frequent breastfeeds in the early days and weeks help maximize your milk production and make sure you go on to establish a full milk supply.
#2. Night feeds ensure breastfed babies are getting enough milk
Breast milk that babies consume through the night makes up a significant part of their total 24-hour milk intake.
Research has shown that most breastfed babies (64%) aged from 1-6 months feed between one and three times at night (from 10 pm to 4 am), and that about 20% of their 24-hour intake is from these night feeds.
Increasing a baby’s daytime complementary food intake, in the hope that it will result in them sleeping for longer stretches overnight, is ineffective and not recommended. Breast milk or infant formula remains the most important part of your baby’s diet for the first 12 months of life.
Night weaning before babies are ready could mean that they don’t get enough milk to meet their nutritional needs.
#3. Night time feedings help babies sleep
Circadian rhythms are our internal body clocks. They are regulated by hormones that help us wake up and feel energetic during the day and enable us to fall asleep easily at night.
Breast milk contains tryptophan, an amino acid used by the body to make melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps induce and regulate sleep. Tryptophan levels in breast milk rise and fall according to maternal circadian rhythms.
Breastfeeding can help develop infant sleep patterns and help babies fall asleep faster at night.
#4. Babies’ circadian rhythms are still developing
Although breastfeeding might help develop a baby’s circadian rhythm, it isn’t usually established until after 2 months of age. Therefore, it’s only after this time that your baby will have any significant physiological hormonal influence that helps the body to know whether it’s daytime or night time.
You can read more about this in BellyBelly’s article 3 Facts About Circadian Rhythm Of Breastmilk Components.
Regardless of whether babies are breastfed or formula-fed, sleeping longer stretches at night time is a developmental milestone that all babies reach at a different rate.
#5. Night time breastfeeding is necessary for lactational amenorrhea
LAM, or the Lactational Amenorrhea Method, is a form of birth control that is 98% effective if used correctly. If your baby is younger than 6 months and is being exclusively breastfed (day and night), and if your menstrual cycle hasn’t returned, you can use LAM as birth control.
It’s not uncommon for mothers to find their menstrual cycle returns when they cease (or significantly reduce) breastfeeding at night.
It’s possible to fall pregnant using most forms of birth control, even if the risk is small. If you’re strongly against falling pregnant too soon, you might like to consider using additional forms of birth control – for example, condoms.
#6. Breastfeeding is protective against SIDS
Perhaps one of the most important reasons for night breastfeeding is that it contributes to a reduced risk of sudden, unexplained death in infancy (SIDS). It might be that infant arousals are an important mechanism for survival, and these arousals are more frequent for breastfed babies.
You can read more about this in BellyBelly’s article Breastfeeding For Two Months Halves The Risk Of SIDS.
Australia’s leading health organization, the National Health and Medical Research Council, indicates that not breastfeeding increases the risk of SIDS by 56%. Putting this into perspective, in Australia, the risk of SIDS is currently around 1 in 3,000 births.
Therefore, if all babies were formula-fed, the 56% increase in SIDS would then mean that the risk of SIDS would increase to around 3 in 6,000 births.
#7. Breastfeeding mothers actually get more sleep
Research shows that mixed feeding or formula-feeding reduces a mother’s total sleep time, and increases the time it takes to go to sleep when compared with exclusive breastfeeding.
Other studies have shown that mothers who exclusively breastfeed have an increased total sleep duration of 40-45 minutes per night compared with mothers whose babies are given formula. Although 40-45 minutes might not seem like much, it can make a big difference to new parents dealing with sleep deprivation.
Many mothers find co sleeping with their babies helps maximize the amount of sleep they get at night.
You should always make sure your baby’s sleep area is safe.
For more information read BellyBelly’s article Co-Sleeping With Baby | Safe Co-Sleeping Tips.
Baby sleep is a developmental milestone that is unrelated to how your baby is fed. In the meantime, embrace breastfeeding your baby at night time, knowing there are many good reasons for doing so. Before you know it your baby will be all grown up, and you might find that you really miss the cuddly, peaceful night feed.
