Government advice urging mothers to place newborn babies in a cot at night rather than in their bed is detrimental to breast-feeding, according to new research.

A study has found that new babies who share their mother’s bed or spend the night in special clip-on cots, which allow direct contact with their mother, feed or attempt to feed five times more than babies in a stand-alone cot.

Doctors agree that regular suckling in the first few days after birth is essential in establishing a good supply of milk, with the night-time feed being particularly significant.

Regular feeding and attempts at feeding, even if unsuccessful, stimulate production of the hormone prolactin in a new mother which, in turn, signals how much milk will be required in the coming months.

The research, conducted by Sleep Lab at Durham University, provides the first convincing evidence that placing a baby in a cot can damage breast-feeding and could result in an inadequate supply of milk, the reason why many women give up.

It will also reopen the row over whether the advice to put babies in cots should be revised.

The Government changed its advice to new mothers over two years ago after several reports suggested that babies could be accidentally smothered if they share the bed with their parents.

Most hospitals now provide new mothers with stand-alone plastic basonettes, which prevent direct contact with their babies during the night.

But many parents groups, including the influential National Childbirth Trust (NCT), were never fully convinced by the research upon which the advice was based and have urged the Government to reconsider.

The results of the new study, which involved 144 new mothers at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, will be presented today at the UNICEF Baby Conference, in Cardiff. Dr Helen Ball, who led the study, said that it certainly cast doubt on whether separate sleeping was ideal.

“Clearly we now know there is a conflict between breast-feeding and putting your baby in a cot,” she said. “We know the advice not to have your baby next to you is to try and prevent suffocation, but this study shows the other side of the equation.”

Dr Ball videotaped mothers and babies during their first night together. She said the videos showed that sleepy mothers whose babies were in stand-alone cots would try anything to avoid having to feed, because for them it meant waking up fully, sitting up or even getting out of bed.

“When babies in cots started squirming and rooting, indicating they want to feed, the mother couldn’t touch the baby easily, so rocked the cot, and shushed the baby — anything to avoid having to wake up completely, sit up or stand up to lift the baby to feed,” she said. “When the baby was in beside her, either in the bed or the side-car [clip-on cot], we saw still-drowsy mothers scoop the infant towards her to help it feed. Having the baby so close really means the mother has less choice but to feed, but it is much easier to do it.”

The study showed that babies in the bed were exposed to more “potentially hazardous situations [in the form of airway covering]” than babies in the cot or side-car, although the increase was tiny.

However, it could lead to pressure on hospitals to provide more clip-on cots for new mothers since they allow for continuous contact without any increase in breathing risk. Clip-on cots have been used in the past to help mothers who have had Caesarean Sections look after their babies, but they may now have broader appeal.

The NCT said that the research was ground-breaking. “The Government says don’t share a bed with your baby. Until now we haven’t had any evidence about the effects this advice is having on breast-feeding or on the relationship between the baby and mother,” said Rosie Dodds, policy researcher at the NCT.

“We have always been concerned that the advice is flawed, failing to highlight the far greater risks of falling asleep on the sofa, for example. However this shows breast-feeding, which the Government is eager to increase, may also be suffering.”

However, the Foundation for Sudden Infant Death said it still believed that separate cots were best. “Babies should sleep close to their parents, ideally within touching distance, to reduce the risk of cot death, but research shows that they should not sleep in the same bed, especially in the first three months after birth,” a spokeswoman said. “The safest place for your baby to sleep is in a crib or cot in a room with you.”

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