Is it healthy to rock babies to sleep?
When our newborn babies cry or become unsettled, we automatically start walking around with them in our arms or rocking them to help them settle. And then we notice that walking or rocking really has helped, and that our baby has calmed down or fallen asleep. Parents who see that this method works believe they have found the way to get their baby to sleep. So why do babies drift off when they are rocked? For nine months they were in the womb: their mother walked, sat down and lay down. In other words, she was constantly moving and the baby was always being gently swayed. A baby who notices that same swaying in your arms feels the movement of the womb once more; just as in the womb, they feel their caregiver's warmth and hear their heartbeat, and, feeling safe, they surrender to sleep. Rocking a baby gently, in a swaying motion, does them no harm; on the contrary, it helps them regulate their emotions and calms them. If we think about ourselves at moments of stress, we notice that we sway from side to side or back and forth, or that we jiggle our leg. Or we walk. This helps us regulate intense emotions. (Perhaps our unconscious remembers the movement inside the womb and takes us back to the safe space of that time.) Like adults, babies regulate intense emotions more easily when they are moving.
What matters here, however, is not to shake the baby while rocking them. Traditional settling methods that involve swinging a baby on your legs or in a sheet do them harm. The part of the inner ear that controls balance sends out rocking signals while the baby is being swung and fixing their gaze on a single point, and this brings on sleep through a feeling of dizziness. These babies have not been rocked but shaken, and they fall asleep feeling dazed. These babies may develop shaken baby syndrome, which can lead to brain haemorrhages or brain damage. For this reason it is important not to shake babies, and to support them only with a gentle swaying motion.
Walking around with your baby in your arms to settle them can become a habit. In the months to come, as your baby puts on weight, carrying them will become difficult. So instead of walking, you can help them settle by swaying gently while sitting down.
About the author
Clinical Psychologist Orlit Linet Haklı — After completing a double major in Psychology and Sociology at Koç University, I graduated from the Clinical Psychology programme at Bahçeşehir University. For three years I worked with the Solidarity Association with Refugees and Migrants, a UNICEF project, conducting individual psychotherapy and group art therapy sessions with refugee children and adolescents. I currently provide parental counselling at a private practice in Kadıköy on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, working with children, adolescents and adults using psychodynamic psychotherapy, play therapy and art therapy.