Anticipatory guidance to prevent infant sleep problems within a randomised controlled trial: infant, maternal and partner outcomes at 6 months of age

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of sleep education delivered antenatally and at 3 weeks postpartum to prevent infant sleep problems at 6 months of age.

Design

Sleep intervention within a randomised controlled trial for the Prevention of Overweight in Infancy (POI) study.

Participants

802 families were randomly allocated to one of four groups: usual care (control), sleep intervention (sleep), food, activity and breastfeeding intervention (FAB), and combined group receiving both interventions (combination).

Interventions

All groups received standard Well Child care. The sleep intervention groups (sleep and combination) received an antenatal group education session (all mothers and most partners) emphasising infant self-settling and safe sleeping, and a home visit at 3 weeks reinforcing the antenatal sleep education. FAB and combination groups received four contacts providing education and support on breast feeding, food and activity up to 4 months postpartum.

Outcome measures

Here we report secondary sleep outcomes from the POI study: the prevalence of parent-reported infant sleep problems and night waking, and differences in sleep duration. Additional outcomes reported include differences in infant self-settling, safe sleep practices, and maternal and partner reports of their own sleep, fatigue and depression symptoms.

Results

Linear or mixed linear regression models found no significant intervention effects on sleep outcomes, with 19.1% of mothers and 16.6% of partners reporting their infant's sleep a problem at 6 months. Actigraphy estimated the number of night wakings to be significantly reduced (8%) and the duration of daytime sleep increased (6 min) in those groups receiving the sleep intervention compared with those who did not. However, these small differences were not clinically significant and not observed in 24 hours infant sleep diary data. No other differences were observed.

Conclusion

A strategy delivering infant sleep education antenatally and at 3 weeks postpartum was not effective in preventing the development of parent-reported infant sleep problems.

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