Are fathers equal to mothers? A look at a triadic co-sleeping (mother–father–baby): A replication study
MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract
Author Debo Akande
Copy In Africa, dyadic co-sleeping (mother–baby) on the same bed is a common strategy for night-time infant care. However, somehow, modern fathers are involved in triadic cosleeping (mother–father–baby)which is still is less common. This study is an extension of Ball, Hoker and Kelly (2000) and it examines triadic co-sleeping in a convenient sample of parents from the Mowbray quarters of Cape Town, South Africa and explores fathers' expectations and experiences of sleeping with their babies. Using a prospective study design, 21 sets of parents, pre- and post-natally, were interviewed about infant care strategies, particularly at night. Although they did not anticipate sleeping with their infants at the pre-natal interview, the majority of fathers (74%) had done so by the time of the second interview. Conversely, most first-time fathers were not panicking that they might squash or suffocate the baby in their sleep, however, some of them felt that the baby's presence might affect the quality of their own sleep. When interpreted within the cultural context, it follows that the unique experience of these fathers sleeping with their infant ameliorates some of the distancing effects felt by fathers outside the breast-feeding relationship, and tends to improve and encourage paternal bedtime caring and deeper involvement in night-time infant care-giving. Implications for psychonomic research are drawn.