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Glossary

Cooperative breeding

Defined in topic 33

A system in which adults besides the mother, called alloparents, invest in raising young: grandmothers, older siblings, aunts, unrelated group members. Human infants arrive too helpless for one adult to manage.

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Where this comes from

In the reference topic that owns this term

Reference topic 33, Born Too Soon, states the mismatch as a card: what the system evolved to expect, what it gets instead, and what happens in the gap.

Mismatch card

What it expects

A labor attended continuously, several pairs of hands afterwards, a founding microbial community from the birth canal, milk carrying sugars for the infant's bacteria, and sleep within reach of an adult.

What it gets

More than one birth in five by cesarean, staff who rotate, formula without the same sugars, a mother recovering largely alone, and in many homes an infant asleep behind a closed door.

What happens in the gap

A different founding microbiome, missing feeding chemistry, more surgical births than medical need explains in some regions and too few in others, and caregiving loads that no ancestral mother carried by herself.

The full card, and the topic behind it

What that chapter recommends

3 of the 4 graded recommendations in Reference topic 33, strongest evidence first. How the grades work.

  1. Room-share, do not bed-share, for at least the first six months

    StrongEvidence grade: Strong. Multiple randomized controlled trials, or consistent large cohort studies with a well-understood mechanism.

    Infant on the back, on a firm, flat, non-inclined surface of their own. Keep it in the parents' room, with no soft bedding, pillows, bumpers or loose blankets, and no overheating.

    Read it in full

  2. Arrange continuous support through labor

    ProbableEvidence grade: Probable. Good observational evidence with a plausible mechanism, or small or few trials.

    Look for a doula, midwife or trained companion who stays throughout, rather than staff rotating in and out.

    Read it in full

  3. Support breastfeeding, and drop the shame

    ProbableEvidence grade: Probable. Good observational evidence with a plausible mechanism, or small or few trials.

    Human milk oligosaccharides are a real and specific provisioning system for the infant gut. Breastfeeding is worth practical support: lactation help early, time, and someone else doing everything that is not feeding.

    Read it in full

Related terms

The argument behind this term, its studies and its notes are in Reference topic 33 of the reference library. The book gives the practical version. Get the book.