Emily of London
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My daughter Joanna was born in November 1988. The proverbial 'perfect' baby, feeding and sleeping well, she was a joy to behold. At about 4 weeks, however, things began to change, with the onset of colic, an often difficult to understand syndrome. She soon became unsettled and restless. As with most colicky babies, sleeping and feeding became a 'chore' rather
than a 'joy'.
The admission that we 'just could not cope', a few weeks later, resulted
in a week's reprieve at Torrens House, an Adelaide based hospital for the
'infantile waywards' of the world. A God sent for parents living on the
edge.
Her absence from home created an environment of tranquillity that allowed
me to ponder leisurely over the question of 'a cure' for all this colic!
What does a newborn do most of the time? Sleep? Yes, apart from feeding
and the other natural things that all good babies do, the newborn sleeps
or tries to, most of the time. So he spends most of his early life lying
down, somewhere. Could the logical answer to the problem then, be as
simple as a bed? A suitable bed for all these young 'lay abouts'? Perhaps
some kind of a 'nest' that replicates the comfort and security of the
maternal womb may not be too far fetched an idea for a solution! After
all, why does the stork deliver the baby in a hammock and not in a basket?
Why do baby kangaroos hop back into the pouch at the slightest sign of
danger? Why do babies curl up in a corner of a cot to sleep?
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With more research into the subject, it became increasingly evident that
apart from Western cultures, there are many other cultures that use an
alternative bed for their babies. In many countries a little hammock of
one kind or another is used exclusively for their newborns. In these
societies where nothing 'natural' is misconstrued as obsolete, the hammock
as a baby bed can be found everywhere, suspended from beams in corridors
and doorways, from the branches of shady old trees and on the front or
back of mothers working in the fields. Every time you look in on these
'hammock' babies, they are asleep, blissfully!
If one begins to examine the make up and structure of the hammock, one is
reminded of some sort of an external womb, a kind of a 'pouch' that has
many ingredients of the maternal womb. In kangaroos and other marsupials,
the pouch is both an external and internal womb where the young is
nurtured until they are old enough to fend for themselves. This is the
supreme place of security, a place where they can simply concentrate on
the joys of feeding, sleeping and growing.
The human baby, amongst the most helpless at birth, is no different. To
cope with the outside world in their first few months of 'external'
existence, they must surely be given an environment that has some
resemblance to the maternal womb. As he spends most of his time in bed,
then he should have a bed that simulates the conditions of the maternal
womb. A bed that can provide spatial restrictions or enclosure, tactile
touch and rhythmic movements. The conventional baby bed that is available
is therefore nowhere near suitable. They are, very simply, adult beds made
in miniature and 'babied' up with frills. The only problem here is that
babies are not miniature adults! They are initially frail and helpless and
they need a lot of nurturing and sleep. Their bed must therefore be a place of utmost comfort and security, a bed that is at once soothing and stimulating.
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Sarah - premmie 5 months
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In current debates and discussions on the topic of sleep or the lack of,
much has been said about the methods- Ferber, controlled crying,
co-sleeping, attaching a crib to the parental bed, medication etc etc.
We impose these so called 'expert advice' on our babies in the hope that
one of them might work, when in fact a bit of common sense and lateral
thinking might point us in the right direction. It just might be possible
that the root of most sleeping problems in a normal infant (i.e. not
hungry, wet, sick, collicky or reflux) could be put down to one very
simple thing, his bed. He could well be looking, even craving for
something that he can easily and naturally identify with. Surely it is not
too difficult for us, adults to understand that babies, like us, will
prefer to sleep in something that they are familiar with and accustomed
to. After all, they have just spent their whole life in the womb!
Forcing a baby to sleep in a still, flat , open bassinet or crib is akin
to asking us to sleep on floor boards after a life time of mattresses. I
wonder how long it will take us to get used to it ?
It is not the 'sleep' that is the problem, it's the 'bed'!!
Ultimately your baby does not care how expensive, beautiful or ornate his bed is, as long as he feels snug, safe and comfortable in it. Only then will his sleeps be sound, long and blissful.
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Sidarth of USA
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By the time of Joanna's return from Torrens House, I was ready! I had constructed a crude hammock with an old 'sarong' suspended from the dining room ceiling by a few strands of bicycle tyre tubes. It was a sizzler of a day, a typical South Australian hot, dry, mid-summer's day. The trip home from Torrens House was long and arduous and she was in a 'piggish' mood- perfect for the much anticipated trial. We took her out of the capsule and put her in the hammock. She screamed. I started to rock her up and down. The screaming stopped . Curiosity took over. She began to look around this strange contraption. She was tired. We kept up the rocking, up down, up down. Soon the inevitable happened. The rhythm of the rocking got the better of her and she fell into a long, deep sleep. From then on, this was her bed. She slept in it till she was almost two.
The
rest, is as they say, history. In 1990 Natures Nest was selected to represent
Australia at the 1990 International Exhibition of Inventions and New Techniques
in Geneva, Switzerland where it was awarded the Grand Jury Bronze Medal.
In 1991, it was featured on Beyond 2000.
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Today,
many thousands of parents in Australia and Europe have finally come to
terms with the fact that for babies, to sleep, grow and feed well, they
need a sleeping environment that has at least some ingredients of the
maternal womb. The use of Natures Nest by hospitals and child care centres
in Australia and Europe is extensive and growing rapidly.
Ambrose Hooi
P.S. This was my first and only attempt at 'design' and 'inventing'. I was
then an Economics lecturer, more at home with the vagaries of Economic Theories than babies and sleep.
Since then I have learnt a lot about babies, their sleeping patterns and
their preferences for sleeping utensils.
It has been said, here in Australia, by some Health & Family Institutions
that if the hammock can save even ONE baby from being 'beaten up' by a
frustrated parent at wit's end, then this whole exercise would have been
well and truly worth the time and effort that it took! |
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