Attachment Parenting Research Paper

Attachment Parenting: Following Your Instinct
For most parents the impulse to love and protect their children instinctively happens the moment they are brought into this world. Often times, parents describe the feeling of holding their bundle of joy for the very first time as love at first sight. Why is that? Research has shown that this indescribable surge of emotions between parents and their offspring can be attributed to the natural hormone, oxytocin. The release of oxytocin has been linked with sexual contact, fertility, contractions during labor and birth, and the release of milk in breastfeeding; ultimately triggering nurturing feelings and behaviors for both mom, dad and baby. Often times these natural feelings get pushed aside the
Despite its critics, attachment parenting should become the social norm as research has proven by using this parenting method baby is more trusting, parents become more confident, and the
The reality is babies have needs at night just as they do during the day; from hunger, loneliness, and fear, to feeling too cold or too hot. Although most parents respond to their children's needs at night just as they do during the day, a variety of sleeping arrangements allow for parents to be more responsive. In attachment parenting, parents often opt for co-sleeping arrangements. Co-sleeping is frequently confused with bed-sharing, which is in fact a form of co-sleeping, however the term co-sleeping itself essentially means sleeping in close proximity to your child. Research has found that co-sleeping is conducive to the long-term development in children including higher self-esteem, less anxiety, they become independent sooner, and are more comfortable with affection. In the mean time, co-sleeping makes breastfeeding easier for mothers while allowing parents and baby to easily respond to each other’s sensory signals and cues, ultimately allowing baby to be more trusting. Many safety concerns are brought up when a family states that they practice co-sleeping in the form of bed-sharing, however, Professor James J. McKenna’s research has found that when practicing bed-sharing in accordance with safety guidelines, bed-sharing have a fourfold decrease in the chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Additionally, when sleeping in close proximity to one another the biological relationship