What to expect in a Possums sleep consultation

Many families ask “what happens during a Possums’ sleep consultation?” so I thought I would shed some light on what to expect.

Our sleep consultations are one hour long and we need every second of that hour! That is because we need to collect a lot of information from the family and then we have A LOT of information to share back to the family. 

We take a big picture approach. We consider sleep to be one part of the puzzle. We gather a thorough history including details of pregnancy and birth, baby’s health, mother’s health and feeding history. Sometimes we may need to observe a feed – breast and/ or bottle. Finally we explore sleep and what the current patterns are for the family. We then spend time discussing the facts about infant sleep and sharing what is reflected in the research. It can be very surprising for a family to hear how much commonly offered sleep advice has no evidence behind it! There are a quite few myths to dispel!

Next we help the family understand why their little baby is doing what he/she is doing. This is achieved by understanding how human sleep works. It soon becomes clear what is required to get the family’s sleep patterns back in sync. This plan is carefully put together with a family. Every family is unique and parents know their baby better than anyone else.  We acknowledge individual parenting values and align our advice to match. The plan never involves leaving a baby to cry - we use a ‘dial’ analogy to explain why not. 

The Possums Sleep Program is targeted at addressing the physiology behind unmanageable sleep patterns. Families find the plan forward very manageable, tailored to how their life works and very much in line with their own unique parenting values.