Anni Gethin - Helping Baby Sleep: The Science and Practice of Gentle Bedtime Parenting

Helping Baby Sleep has two essential ingredients: practical advice about infant sleep garnered from neurobiological, social-emotional, and attachment literatures, and a compassionate, sensitive attitude toward both infants and parents. Translating diverse scientific findings into applicable tools, Gethin and Macgregor encourage positive and gentle practices that enhance the quality of infant sleep and strengthen the parent-infant relationship. A must-read that sheds light on one of the most common parenting issues of infancy and early childhood.

Hiram E. Fitzgerald, PhD, former executive director of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (19922008) and co-editor of the WAIMH Handbook of Infant Mental Health

Gethin and Macgregor have boldly and successfully waded into the complex issues of infant sleep, creating a guide that gives hope and support to parents. Grounded in common sense and respect for the infant, the lessons in this book are both comforting and empowering, showing parents how they can gently guide the emotional experiences of their babies. How remarkable that a book could have these features and still represent cutting-edge research. A magnificent gift to mothers and fatherssuperb.

Michael Trout, MA, director of the Infant-Parent Institute

This is a beautiful book, rich with empathy for babies and parents, and also practical and down-to-earth. Infants are not our enemies. They are not feral creatures to be tamed, domesticated, and programmed to become adults who are obedient and placatory. When we respect their individuality and respond to what they are trying to tell us, we help them develop social skills, grow in self-confidence, and give and receive love.

Sheila Kitzinger, author of Understanding Your Crying Baby

What makes Helping Baby Sleep beautiful is that it does not focus on manipulating infant behavior, but on the more important issue of creating a secure and sensitive relationship between parent and child. The authors present helping your baby learn to sleep as part of a larger philosophy and approach to parentingone that is grounded in responsive emotional support. Gethin and Macgregor explain how parents can provide their babies with feelings of safety and comfort, which helps them (and the rest of the family) fall asleep.

Bert Powell, Glen Cooper, and Kent Hoffman, co-founders of the Circle of Security: Early Intervention Program for Parents and Children

Gethin and Macgregors work is an outstanding example of translating very recent advances in the developmental sciences into sensitive, empathic models of child rearing. Their carefully researched and clearly explained approach to the important matter of infant sleep behaviors is based on a deep understanding of current research, which demonstrates that attachment interactions directly impact the development of the infant brain. I highly recommend this important book.

Allan N. Schore, PhD, author of Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self and Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self

In Helping Baby Sleep, Gethin and Macgregor address all the major issues we parents fret about: Is co-sleeping okay? Can I put my baby in a crib and not scar her for life? Why doesnt he sleep through the night? How can I get her to stop crying? Am I doing anything wrong? Will my baby survive my parenting? Using a warm, conversational style, they soothe away our worries with practical, gentle, and easy-to-follow advice. This book should be given to mothers and fathers at every baby shower.

Meredith F. Small, PhD, author of Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent

I cant imagine any parent reading this informed, wise, and powerfully argued book, and ever wanting to use controlled crying again.

Steve Biddulph, author of The Secret of Happy Children and Raising Boys

Much advice about infant sleep is both unrealistic and harshly neglectful of babies needs. [Helping Baby Sleep] is very different: Anni and Beth have a wonderful, warm way of combining scientific evidence against harsh practices such as controlled crying, with the wisdom gleaned from their own mothering experiences. They unapologetically advocate for the babys well-being while also acknowledging parents very real needs for support. If [Helping Baby Sleep] was mandatory reading for anyone caring for babies. [children] would be free to reach their potential for emotional and intellectual well-being.

Pinky McKay, author of Sleeping Like a Baby

This is an important book for parents because it puts babies sleep in the context of research about infant development. There are many books that give suggestions about how to train babies to sleep but none that I know of that give parents the information to make their decisions about sleep, taking into account their babies developmental needs.

Pam Linke, author and national president of the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health

At lastan antidote to the current vogue for leaving babies to cry! Many parents have felt intuitively that this cannot be the way to deal with their infants, but too often they are encouraged to ignore their feelings and to ignore babys distress signals as well.

Carolyn Quadrio, MBBS, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of New South Wales

Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the experience and research of the authors. It is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician or other health-care provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should be done under the direction of a health-care professional. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in this book.

Copyright 2009 by Anni Gethin and Beth Macgregor
Foreword copyright 2007 by Steve Biddulph
Illustrations 2007 by Phil Somerville.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Celestial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Celestial Arts and the Celestial Arts colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

First published as Helping Your Baby to Sleep in Australia in 2007 by Finch Publishing Pty. Ltd.

Interior photographs courtesy of Finch Publishing, the authors, and the Australian Breastfeeding Association

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gethin, Anni.
Helping baby sleep : the science and practice of gentle bedtime parenting / Anni Gethin and Beth Macgregor.
p. cm.
Summary: A baby sleep book that advocates responsive parenting and cites research in infant neural and emotional developmentProvided by publisher.
1. InfantsSleep. 2. InfantsDevelopment. 3. Parent and infant. 4. Child rearing. I. Macgregor, Beth. II. Title.

RJ506.S55G48 2009
649.122dc22

2009010739

eISBN: 978-0-307-80814-1

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