Promoting Family Resilience Through Evidence‐based Policy Making: Reconsidering the Link Between Adult–Infant Bedsharing and Infant Mortality

Gordon, Rachel A.; Rowe, Hillary L.; García, Karina Silva

doi:10.1111/fare.12099

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The work of anthropologists in shaping policy at the intersection of SIDS and infant sleep location is increasingly being recognized in policy discussions in the United States (e.g., Altfeld et al. ; Gordon, Rowe, and Garcia ; Mileva‐Seitz et al. ) and practice recommendations in the United Kingdom (e.g., UNICEF UK ), and is firmly embedded in policy and practice recommendations addressing breastfeeding initiation and nighttime infant feeding (e.g., Ball and Blair ; Feldman‐Winter and Goldsmith ; Holmes, McLeod, and Bunik ; Rapley ).…”

Section: Transforming the Paradigm: An Integrated Anthropological Appmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Integrated Anthropology of Infant Sleep

Ball

Tomori

McKenna

2019

American Anthropologist

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This article provides a novel synthesis of anthropological research on infant sleep, focusing on work in biological and sociocultural anthropology in the past decade. First, we briefly review early biological anthropological research into infant sleep from 1987 to 2007, which provided the evidence base for the argument that proximate parent-infant sleep combined with lactation represents a complex set of adaptations that constitute the human evolutionary norm. This work challenged the Western pediatric infant sleep research paradigm, which positioned formula-or bottle-fed solitary sleeping infants as the basis for research and universal models about human infant sleep. Next, we address how recent research has built on these foundations and extended anthropological insights into new aspects of infant sleep. Biological anthropologists, who continue to lead this research, have advanced into the hormonal and behavioral ecology of parent-infant sleep and trade-offs in nighttime care and parent-infant conflict. Moreover, they have made significant progress in translating anthropological research into policy and practice in clinical and health delivery settings. Until recently, sociocultural anthropology has primarily addressed infant sleep as part of broader endeavors, without an explicit focus on infant sleep. We highlight key ethnographic works that shed light on the cultural normalcy and interembodied experience of shared maternal-infant sleep with breastfeeding that help de-center Western discourses of infant sleep. We conclude by discussing future research agendas to forward an integrated anthropology of human infant sleep that considers its full biological and sociocultural context. Integrated anthropological approaches to infant sleep not only present a path forward for novel cross-subfield anthropological research but could help guide more effective and equitable approaches to maternal-infant health. [nighttime care, parenting, infancy, sleep]RESUMEN Este artículo provee una síntesis novedosa de la investigación antropológica sobre el sueño de infantes, enfocándose en el trabajo en antropología biológica y sociocultural en la década pasada. Primero, brevemente revisamos la investigación antropológica biológica temprana en el sueño de infantes desde 1987 a 2007, la cual proveyó la evidencia base para el argumento que el sueño padres-infante cercano combinado con la lactación representa un complejo conjunto de adaptaciones que constituye la norma evolucionaria humana. Este trabajo reta el paradigma occidental de la investigación pediátrica en el sueño de infantes, el cual posiciona los bebés durmiendo solitarios alimentados con fórmula o biberón como la base de la investigación y modelos universales acerca del sueño de infantes humanos. Luego, abordamos cómo la investigación reciente ha construido sobre estas bases y extendido los conocimientos antropológicos en nuevos aspectos del sueño de infantes. Antropólogos biológicos, quienes continúan liderando esta investigación, han avanzado en la ecología hormonal y co...

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Section: Transforming the Paradigm: An Integrated Anthropological Appmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Integrated Anthropology of Infant Sleep

Ball

Tomori

McKenna

2019

American Anthropologist

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“…The resulting misdirection in safe sleep policy may have been overlooked initially as attention was diverted toward controversy concerning the strength of evidence for one aspect of the population-wide recommendation. For example, the recommended total bedsharing ban became a major obstacle to prevention in many countries, including the United States (Middlemiss, Yaure, & Huey, 2014), as research findings supported both (a) bedsharing as a central risk for SIDS and (b) bedsharing as a potentially safe practice contingent on factors addressed by the triple-risk model (Gordon, Rowe, & Garcia, 2015;Vennemann et al, 2012). For example, researchers reported that bedsharing was a statistically higher risk for infants exposed to cigarette smoke than for those not exposed to cigarette smoke (notably, these findings were recently replicated in New Zealand; Mitchell, Cowan, & Tipene-Leach, 2016).…”

Section: Persisting Disparitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative Translation of Knowledge to Protect Infants During Sleep: A Synergy of Discovery and Practice

Middlemiss

Cowan²,

Kildare

et al. 2017

Family Relations

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The impact of discoveries from scientific research is manifested in its timely application to real‐world conditions, with a goal of improving life. This is the desired research‐to‐practice transition for new knowledge, yet it is not always achieved. Where knowledge is simply transferred in its discovered form, there can be unintended consequences and harmful delays in achieving desired changes if there is not also a cultural and contextual fit with targeted populations. This has been the case, for example, in the failure of the “don't bedshare” message in protecting African American infants, a message derived from the discovery of heightened risk of death for infants who sleep in the same bed as others. Knowledge transfer implies movement in one direction: from researchers to end‐users. Family scientists, who work with families, understand that knowledge in its discovered form needs to be translated, and not just transferred, if it is to be useful to families and fit with their values, preferences, and circumstances. Unlike knowledge transfer, knowledge translation is bidirectional, with multiple informants, including but not limited to the new discoveries themselves. In this article, we examine the history of discovery and practice as it relates to preventing sudden infant death. Using safer infant sleep as an example, this review demonstrates the importance of collaborative translation between discovery and practice for developing health policies, interventions and messaging that are enabling for all families.

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“…However, the lack of substantial reduction in sleep-related infant deaths despite the prevalence of abstinence-only messages suggests that a strict ABC message with a strong anti–bed-sharing stance may not be the best strategy for reducing overall SIDS/SUID rates and disparities. Bed-sharing behavior, in fact, seems to be quite resistant to change and is often accompanied by other SUID risks (e.g., use of soft bedding and multiple people in bed) that might be more susceptible than bed-sharing itself to intervention (Blabey & Gessner, 2009; Blair, Sidebotham, Berry, Evans, & Fleming, 2006; Gordon, Rowe, & Garcia, 2015). Clearer messaging about the dangers of co-sleeping on couches and similar surfaces is also necessary.…”

Section: Conclusion For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative Analysis of Infant Safe Sleep Public Campaign Messaging

Peacock

Altfeld

Rosenthal

et al. 2017

Health Promotion Practice

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The 1994 Back to Sleep public education campaign resulted in dramatic reductions in sleep-related infant deaths, but comparable progress in recent years has been elusive. We conducted qualitative analyses of recent safe sleep campaigns from 13 U.S. cities. Goals were to (a) determine whether the campaigns reflect the full range of American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2011 safe sleep recommendations, (b) describe tone and framing of the messages (e.g., use of fear appeals), (c) describe targeting/tailoring of messages to priority populations, and (d) ascertain whether the campaigns have been evaluated for reach and/or effectiveness. Methods included computer-assisted analyses of campaign materials and key informant interviews. All campaigns included "ABC" (Alone, Back, Crib) messaging; many ignored other AAP recommendations such as breastfeeding, room-sharing, immunizations, and avoiding smoke exposure. Campaigns frequently targeted priority populations such as African Americans. Fear appeals were used in three quarters of the campaigns, and 60% of the fear-based campaigns used guilt/blame messaging. We did not find published evaluation data for any of the campaigns. More attention is needed in public education campaigns to the full range of AAP recommendations, and evaluations are needed to determine the impact of these interventions on knowledge, behavior, and health outcomes.

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Promoting Family Resilience Through Evidence‐based Policy Making: Reconsidering the Link Between Adult–Infant Bedsharing and Infant Mortality

Cited by 7 publications

References 68 publications

Toward an Integrated Anthropology of Infant Sleep

Toward an Integrated Anthropology of Infant Sleep

Collaborative Translation of Knowledge to Protect Infants During Sleep: A Synergy of Discovery and Practice

Qualitative Analysis of Infant Safe Sleep Public Campaign Messaging

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