Somewhere in the darkness of night, a mother and baby, snuggling belly-to-belly, stir from sleep simultaneously. Mother moves Baby to her breast, and Baby begins to nurse. Both drift back to sleep, and in the morning, neither will remember any disturbance. Father, lying nearby, continues sleeping, uninterrupted.

This scenario can and does happen, every night, in every country in the world, even the United States. Perhaps at some point you have been frazzled and sleep-deprived, running back and forth to your baby’s room in the middle of the night attending to his cries and wondered, “What in the world does he expect from me?” The answer lies in the above scenario. It is nature’s cure for the sleepless period many Western parents experience after childbirth, and it is called co-sleeping.

Sometimes known as “bed-sharing” or “the family bed,” co-sleeping is a practice as old as our species. It is defined as a child (especially an infant) sharing a sleeping space with an adult (especially his mother). How did such a natural practice fall into such disfavor in Western culture? And more importantly, why does it appear to be making a comeback?

Who Practices Co-Sleeping?

The answer is, almost every family, at some point. If you’ve ever taken a fussy or sick child to bed with you, you have experienced co-sleeping. If your children don’t start out in your bed but are there by morning, that is also co-sleeping. In fact, some consider co-sleeping to include even sharing a bedroom with a baby or child.

Western culture dictates that children should sleep in their own beds in their own rooms, but in most cultures, co-sleeping is the standard practice. In fact, mothers and babies sleeping together is the cultural norm for about 90% of the world’s population! Mothers in Asia and Africa think nothing of bringing their babies to bed, and many consider the Western practice of isolating infants in “cages” and banishing them to another room to be quite cruel.