If you’re looking for the answer to the above question, start by looking at your baby who is still in the womb and about to be born. Get to know her, her sleep.
How did your baby sleep before he was born?
• She slept 95-98% of the time.
• She moved at least 50 times an hour.
• And that’s just her own movements! In addition, the mother moved her with her own movements!
• She was constantly surrounded by tight hugs and many, many sounds: the sounds of the mother inside and the sounds of the world outside.
• She was also sucking on her finger, practising the sucking movement, even though the food was not coming from there at the time.
So for a newborn baby, it is natural and familiar,
that while sleeping she is
➜ constantly touched during sleep,
➜ moving and being moved,
➜ and that sucking is independent of feeding and is available at all times.
It is therefore not surprising that it is well known and scientifically proven that babies are helped to fall asleep by being touched, moved and sucked.
Breast milk is an additional aid: it contains calming, relaxing substances and the hormones produced in the mother during the evening, which are responsible for night-time sleep, are also passed on to the baby, thus adjusting her hormonal balance to night-time function.
Why does she cry if I leave her alone to fall asleep?
If you think about the facts above, it is obvious that it is in vain to expect your baby to fall asleep in a completely different way to the way she has been sleeping. A baby cannot fall asleep and sleep alone or without help. And it cannot stay asleep without familiar, safe surroundings and stimuli – day or night.
Being alone and motionless in a quiet room (without the close proximity or movement of another person) is an unbearable, unfamiliar, empty experience for the baby, and as such, a great danger to her! No wonder she cannot fall asleep in this state. If she finds yourself in this situation, she asks for help. The only way she knows how: she cries.
So how do I put my baby to sleep?
The most effective sleep aids are
✔ breastfeeding,
✔ milk from a bottle,
✔ pacifier,
✔ rocking,
✔ proximity,
✔ carrying the baby (and moving while doing it: walking, dancing,
✔ bouncing on a fitness ball)
✔ moving the baby around (in a stroller, in a swing, in a car, etc.)
✔ singing or talking to the baby,
and combinations of these.
Use these possibilities creatively and freely as you feel comfortable! There is no better mother in the world for her than you!