Japanese Co‐Sleeping Practices Challenge French Migrant Mothers' Cultural Representations of Childcare

ABSTRACT

This study explores the perspective of French migrant mothers in Japan toward co‐sleeping. Psychoanalytical theories attest that the pathogenicity of co‐sleeping practices relies on the meanings attributed to its cultural framework. In France, the practice of co‐sleeping is unusual and discouraged for children's well‐being. In Japan, co‐sleeping is a common childcare habit and a window to emotionally intimate dynamics within a family. How does the French mothers' proximity to the practice of co‐sleeping in a Japanese migratory context challenge their internal representations? Participants ( N  = 6) were born and raised in France and started a family in Japan with a Japanese man. Their infants were born in Japan and are around 1 year old. They were interviewed at home about adopting standard Japanese and French childcare practices. We used a thematic analysis and focused on interview extracts that represented the dominant narratives. Most mothers adopted co‐sleeping, although they had a negative appreciation of it, as found in French collective representations. They discovered benefits such as easy nighttime breastfeeding habits and bonding moments with their newborn. However, according to their journeys into motherhood, adopting co‐sleeping practices came with an emotional cost. We suggest that mothers who discovered the advantages of co‐sleeping practices were confronted with diverging representations of the family. Specifically, the couple as a central part of the family and their roles as new mothers seemed to trigger internal conflicts. The flexibility of mothers' cultural envelope was tested to find compromises to adjust to the Japanese cultural context of child‐rearing.