Vii. Infant Sleep Development From 3 to 6 Months Postpartum: Links With Maternal Sleep and Paternal Involvement

Abstract

The aims of this longitudinal study were to examine (a) development of infant sleep and maternal sleep from 3 to 6 months postpartum; (b) concomitant and prospective links between maternal sleep and infant sleep; and (c) triadic links between paternal involvement in infant caregiving and maternal and infant sleep. The study included 57 families that were recruited during pregnancy. Maternal and infant sleep was assessed using actigraphy and sleep diaries for 5 nights. Both fathers and mothers completed a questionnaire assessing the involvement of fathers relative to mothers in infant caregiving. The results demonstrated moderate improvement in infant and maternal sleep percent between 3 and 6 months. Maternal sleep percent at 3 months significantly predicted infant sleep percent at 6 months. Greater paternal involvement in infant daytime and nighttime caregiving at 3 months significantly predicted more consolidated maternal and infant sleep at 6 months. These findings suggest that maternal sleep is an important predictor of infant sleep and that increased involvement of fathers in infant caregiving responsibilities may contribute to improvements in both maternal and infant sleep during the first 6 months postpartum.

The Effects of Social Support on the Relationship between Infant Sleep and Postnatal Depression

“…It is possible that nocturnal wakefulness as measured here again may be an inaccurate representation of a sleep problem in an infant, or that self-reporting of the wakefulness is biased. However if it is accurate, then the data presented here is inconsistent with past findings (Tikotzky et al, 2015;Meijer & van den Wittenboer, 2007).…”

Paternal deprivation affects social behaviors and neurochemical systems in the offspring of socially monogamous prairie voles

“…In humans, father presence during early development is associated with decreased risk for various psychopathologies and increased well-being of the children (Sarkadi et al, 2008; McLanahan et al, 2013; Tikotzky et al, 2015), whereas father absence can lead to negative outcomes including the development of depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors (Phares and Compas, 1992; Culpin et al, 2013; McLanahan et al, 2013). In the present study, using the socially monogamous prairie voles which naturally display both maternal and paternal behaviors, we found that paternal deprivation (PD) during early development has long-lasting effects on social affiliation of the offspring when they became adults, and this effect is behavior-specific.…”

Goodness of fit between prenatal maternal sleep and infant sleep: Associations with maternal depression and attachment security

“…While evidence suggests that both infant and maternal sleep disruptions are independently associated with postpartum depression (e.g., Dennis & Ross, 2005), little is known about the effect of the interplay between maternal and infant sleep on maternal depression and the mother-child relationship across the first years of life. Moreover, although many have examined concurrent and predictive links between postpartum maternal and infant sleep (e.g., Tikotzky, Sadeh, Volkovich, Manber, Meiri, & Shahar, 2015), to our knowledge, little is known about the ways in which mothers’ typical sleep patterns affect infant sleep processes and the emergence of postpartum depression. The current study examined the interactive effects of infants’ sleep and mothers’ typical prenatal sleep patterns and the ways in which the match between infant and mother sleep influences maternal depressive symptoms and later mother-child attachment security.…”