There is no biological excuse for parents to continue sleeping during babies’ cry-nor to be the majority of mothers getting up to take care of their children.
Mothers are much more likely to treat babies at night than parents.
But a new study has wondered the idea that women are biologically prepared to wake up more than men when a baby cries.
The study, in the latest edition of the newspaper Emotionsuggests that the significant disparity in night care is due to social and non -biological factors.
Sometimes designated by “Acoustic umbilical cord”The cry of a baby is a powerful connection with the person who cares for him, just like the physical umbilical cord was in the womb. Crying is a primary mode of communication, designed to get an answer.
There is the conviction that women are naturally “programmed” To respond to a baby’s cry at night, more than men. But the study of the University of Aarhus in Denmark challenged this belief.
The study aimed to investigate why mothers usually support most of the night care load than parents. Researchers studied whether biological differences in the way men and women react to the cry of babies at night, before they became parents, could explain this imbalance.
As the New Atlas details, in the first part of the study, 140 non-PAL (76 women, 64 men) slept at home with a smartphone that reproduced babies and alarm sounds in increasing volumes. The investigators registered when participants woke up in response to the sounds.
Here, the researchers found that women had only a slight probability, about 14%, to wake up more than men when sounds were reproduced in a very low volume. There were no significant differences between men and women in higher volumes; And there was no difference in the way men and women reacted to screams versus alarms.
That is, women were a little more sensitive to low volume sounds, but this difference disappeared with the increase in volume – equated to the cry of babies.
In the second part of the study, 117 Danish couples were recruited from parents for the first time. Each parents reported daily, for a week, the number of times they and their partner got up at night to take care of the baby.
Here, the mothers were three times more likely to get up at night To take care of the baby, than the parents. Provided 76% of the care. In turn, in just about 1% of couples the father provided more night care than mothers. About 23% of couples shared the equal parts.
“Our mathematical modeling has shown that the big difference in night care cannot be explained by the small differences we observed in sensitivity to the sound between men and women,” said the main author of the study, Arnault Quentin-Vermilletquoted by New Atlas.
The study challenged the assumption that women are “naturally” more tuned to the night’s night needs. In addition, the results also suggest that the disparity can be explained by social differencesinstead of biological.
“Contrary to what the many popular media portray, our male participants did not sleep during the baby’s cry,” said the corresponding author of the study, Christine Parsonsfrom the Department of Clinical Medicine of the University of Aarhus.
Still, the expert stated that there are several factors that explain the results, probably interconnected.
“Firstly, mothers usually take maternity leave before the parents. So, the Mothers gain more experience in calming the baby from an early age than parents. Second, when Mothers are breastfeeding At night, it can make sense that parents sleep until the end, ”he theorized.
