![]() In the rest of the world, babies don’t need their own cribs and rooms because everyone expects babies to be close to the mother after birth-they only just came out of the mother’s body, after all. consistently stands out as a country where babies are routinely placed in their own beds and in their own rooms. Even more significant, in none of those 186 cultures do babies sleep in a separate place before they are at least one year old. In other words, in 67% of the cultures around the world, children sleep in the company of others. In one study (Barry, H., & Paxson, 1971) of 186 nonindustrial societies, 46% of children sleep in the same bed as their parents while 21% sleep in a separate bed but in the same room. It is only in industrialized Western countries that sleep has become a compartmentalized, private affair. ![]() In the majority of non-Western societies, babies sleep with their parents–if not in the bed, then in the same room. I remember feeling quietly devastated we couldn’t agree on buying it because it was essential, couldn’t he see that? I insisted we needed the $300 five-piece crib set ( bumper, blanket, sheet, ruffle and I can’t even remember the fifth item-oh yeah, diaper bag-who has time to be refilling a diaper bag?) and he thought I was out of my mind. I remember my husband almost throwing upon himself on our first trip to Babies-R-Us in the U.S. The empire extends way beyond books, though we have built a whole industry around the sleep of babies-creating the nursery (don’t get me wrong-I loved that part) and buying the crib, the crib set, the mobile, the rocker, the swing, and all the other gear. I had a colicky first-born, so in desperation, I poured over every book I could find. I may have even taken notes in the margins. We have many books and experts on the topic-Dr. The sleep of babies is a very profitable empire. My sister-in-law commented that the baby was great, except “ she doesn’t sleep in her bed, only in the arms, so that’s a little hard.” She had just arrived back in Germany from Spain, where she was visiting her little sister who had just had a baby. I was reminded of this when I spoke to my German sister-in-law recently. We have a weird relationship with babies and sleep in the West.
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