Opposing effects of maternal and paternal socioeconomic status on neonatal feeding method, place of sleep, and maternal sleep time.

Objective: This study was conducted to compare the relative influence of the socioeconomic status of both mothers and fathers on feeding method and cosleeping.

Methods: The time and method of feeding and sleeping were recorded in a log during the 4th-week postpartum and analyzed according to the parental Hollingshead Index of Social Position in 33 families with their first newborn.

Results: The effect of socioeconomic status on feeding and sleep was parent specific.

Interaction between feeding method and co-sleeping on maternal-newborn sleep.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that breastfed newborns spend more time awake than bottle-fed newborns, breastfeeding mothers have more fragmented sleep than bottle-feeding mothers, and mother-newborn sleeping arrangements may affect the sleep/wake pattern of mother-newborn pairs.

Objective: To address the unsolved question of whether there is an interaction between type of feeding and sleeping arrangements that affects postpartum sleep during the 4th postpartum week.

Design: Correlational, two-way design using feeding method and location of newborn at night as independent variables, and sleep patterns as the dependent variables.