diff --git a/beacon_chain/types/src/attestation_record.rs b/beacon_chain/types/src/attestation_record.rs
index ed38664a9..e4ddffd62 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/types/src/attestation_record.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/types/src/attestation_record.rs
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ impl Encodable for AttestationRecord {
         s.append(&self.shard_id);
         s.append_vec(&self.oblique_parent_hashes);
         s.append(&self.shard_block_hash);
-        s.append_vec(&self.attester_bitfield.to_bytes());
+        s.append(&self.attester_bitfield);
         s.append(&self.justified_slot);
         s.append(&self.justified_block_hash);
         s.append_vec(&self.aggregate_sig.as_bytes());
diff --git a/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs b/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
index 2a08930fe..b90e4949e 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ impl BooleanBitfield {
     }
 
     /// Returns a vector of bytes representing the bitfield
+    /// Note that this returns the bit layout of the underlying implementation in the `bit-vec` crate.
     pub fn to_bytes(&self) -> Vec<u8> {
         self.0.to_bytes()
     }
@@ -99,6 +100,28 @@ impl default::Default for BooleanBitfield {
     }
 }
 
+// borrowed from bit_vec crate
+fn reverse_bits(byte: u8) -> u8 {
+    let mut result = 0;
+    for i in 0..8 {
+        result = result | ((byte >> i) & 1) << (7 - i);
+    }
+    result
+}
+
+impl ssz::Encodable for BooleanBitfield {
+    // ssz_append encodes Self according to the `ssz` spec.
+    // Note that we have to flip the endianness of the encoding with `reverse_bits` to account for an implementation detail of `bit-vec` crate.
+    fn ssz_append(&self, s: &mut ssz::SszStream) {
+        let bytes: Vec<u8> = self
+            .to_bytes()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|&byte| reverse_bits(byte))
+            .collect();
+        s.append_vec(&bytes);
+    }
+}
+
 impl ssz::Decodable for BooleanBitfield {
     fn ssz_decode(bytes: &[u8], index: usize) -> Result<(Self, usize), ssz::DecodeError> {
         let len = ssz::decode::decode_length(bytes, index, ssz::LENGTH_BYTES)?;
@@ -109,7 +132,18 @@ impl ssz::Decodable for BooleanBitfield {
         if len == 0 {
             Ok((BooleanBitfield::new(), index + ssz::LENGTH_BYTES))
         } else {
-            let field = BooleanBitfield::from_bytes(&bytes[(index + 4)..(index + len + 4)]);
+            let bytes = &bytes[(index + 4)..(index + len + 4)];
+
+            let mut field = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(0, false);
+            for (byte_index, byte) in bytes.iter().enumerate() {
+                for i in 0..8 {
+                    let bit = byte & (1 << i);
+                    if bit != 0 {
+                        field.set(8 * byte_index + i, true);
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+
             let index = index + ssz::LENGTH_BYTES + len;
             Ok((field, index))
         }
@@ -119,6 +153,7 @@ impl ssz::Decodable for BooleanBitfield {
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
+    use ssz::SszStream;
 
     #[test]
     fn test_empty_bitfield() {
@@ -231,4 +266,31 @@ mod tests {
         let field = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(13, true);
         assert_eq!(field.num_bytes(), 2);
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_ssz_encode() {
+        let field = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(5, true);
+
+        let mut stream = SszStream::new();
+        stream.append(&field);
+        assert_eq!(stream.drain(), vec![0, 0, 0, 1, 31]);
+
+        let field = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(18, true);
+        let mut stream = SszStream::new();
+        stream.append(&field);
+        assert_eq!(stream.drain(), vec![0, 0, 0, 3, 255, 255, 3]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_ssz_decode() {
+        let encoded = vec![0, 0, 0, 1, 31];
+        let (field, _): (BooleanBitfield, usize) = ssz::decode_ssz(&encoded, 0).unwrap();
+        let expected = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(5, true);
+        assert_eq!(field, expected);
+
+        let encoded = vec![0, 0, 0, 3, 255, 255, 3];
+        let (field, _): (BooleanBitfield, usize) = ssz::decode_ssz(&encoded, 0).unwrap();
+        let expected = BooleanBitfield::from_elem(18, true);
+        assert_eq!(field, expected);
+    }
 }