Professor Helen Ball’s long-awaited book How Babies Sleep: a factful guide to the first 365 days and nights was published by Penguin Random House on May 29th 2025. To celebrate the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre held a conference and book launch event on Saturday May 10th 2025 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Durham.
From feeding to sleeping to crying to carrying to the first post-birth behaviours, this event will provided parents-to-be and new parents with a wealth of information about what to expect from their babies and how to find balance between meeting their babies’ needs and their own.
We hada great range of speakers for our learning event, covering how babies work from feeding to sleeping to crying to carrying to the first post-birth behaviours.
Speaker One: Dr Kajsa Brimdyr, Lead Ethnographic Researcher for Healthy Children Project, a US based non-profit NGO.
Dr Brimdyr spoke about the amazing ability of newborns and the 9 instinctive stages that they go through during the first hour after birth.
Speaker Two: Olivia Hinge, Midwife and Lactation Consultant
Speaker Three: Professor Helen Ball, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Infancy & Sleep Centre (DISC) at Durham University.
Professor Ball’s talk, ‘What parents need to know about how babies sleep’ explored how the evolved biology of human babies shapes their sleep behaviour, while the rapidly changing economic and social lives of adults shape their expectations of sleep (their own and their baby’s). Professor Ball challenged common myths about baby sleep and discussed ways to avoid conflict over sleep patterns and night-time infant care
Speaker Four: Dr Michiko Yoshida (PhD), Visiting Research Scholar at Hokkaido University Faculty of Health Sciences and a Midwife specialising in Breastfeeding Care.
Dr Yoshida’s talk, entitled: “How Do Babies Sleep in Japan? : Co-Sleeping as a Japanese Cultural Practice, The Influence of Global Co-Sleeping Controversies, and Our Research Findings”, covered Japan’s long history of families raising infants with co-sleeping in the same room, and discussed the reasons why Japan has one of the lowest incidence of SIDS in the world. The talk also explored the findings of Dr Yoshida’s recent work findings on how co-sleeping contributes to sleep development in early infancy (Yoshida, et al. Early Hum Dev. 2024).
Speaker Five: Dr Rosie Knowles, Practicing GP, Founder of the Sheffield Sling Surgery and Library
Dr Knowles’ talk, “How babies like to be carried (and how to carry them well!)” covered the many benefits of babywearing to both baby and parent. She discussed some of the common questions and challenges faced by parents who want to use slings - such as "How do I know what sling is right to use? How do I know that my baby is safe in the sling? Can I feed my child in the sling?”
Speaker Six: Dr Vicky Thomas, Consultant Paediatrician at Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital
Dr Thomas' talk covered how common it is for healthcare professionals to see crying and unsettled babies in clinical practice, and the impact of this on families. Vicky shared evidence based strategies for helping manage this challenging and stressful situation.
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