I used Sleep School when my child was 19 months old. The sleep school was part of a public hospital system. No-one told me before i got there, and no-one expressed told me once i was there, but all the sleep school seemed to do (i saw them do it to every other mother there) was
- put every mother on meds immed
- enforce/bully every mother into using CIO, but called it Controlled Comforting (same result).
- bullied women into weaning, as their hospital policy said weaning happened at 3 months (!!!!). and no, none of the midwives had ever heard of the WHO recc. of "feed until two and beyond".

My child was very traumatised by the two days of enforced weaning they put us through. Her screaming for milk and me bullied into not feeding her. That was heartbreaking.

i had a toddler, in an environment that was not babyproofed, there were no baby gates, and plenty of things she could reach, get into that weren't safe. I had complained about a halogen lamp, on a 2ft high desk, not being safe around walking babies. A day later, she touched it and burnt herself. Pretty light, attractive to a toddler, at her height, of course she's going to touch it one day. The midwives thought i was overreacting and refused to move the lamp, or install a babygate. So many things like this happened. Often when i was told i had to go to a group, and we'll look after your baby. I would come back, and no-one would know where she was. the rabbit warren layout of the place meant you could not see the entire place at one glance, i found it so stressful.


After the two weeks was up, it took a long time for my DD to get over the trauma of being in the sleep school.

The midwives were there 24/7, (on different shifts), so no matter what time of day or night it was, i was consistently harassed about my parenting, as my style of parenting was (and is) Attachment Parenting. They didn't recognise that as such, but all the ways i was parenting my child, i was told, were wrong and had to be changed immed. There was no discussion about this, more of a front of "do it our way or else". I really expected there to be a collaboration of "so your baby won't sleep, here are a range of ways to tackle that" but no.

I was bullied to put my child in a nursery at night, where allegedly, the midwives in their office, would monitor her cries, with the baby monitors. After a few nights, i discovered, the VOLUME of the baby monitors was more often than not, turned down to zero. So no-one was actually monitoring her. I was put in a room more than 50metres away from my child, i couldn't hear her.

During our two week stay, my child was experiencing "teething acid poos". They had happened to her before, so i knew what to do, and i was actively stopped from attending to her. So she got burn marks on her bottom, from sitting in the poo too long. Screaming her head off, me outside her door, being stared down by two midwives, who yelled at me when i went against their orders, and went in there to change her, rescue her from the acid poo. Even when i showed them her skin, they still thought i was wrong to have gone in there. According to them, i was stopping the program working, and wasn't co-operating, because i went in there, before 7am the next morning. I broke their routine.

There was zero acknowledgement that i did anything right as a mother, only condemnation of my parenting (using Attachment and Conscious Parenting). I look pretty conservative, but my bf-ing a 19month old, using cloth nappies, no dummy, co-sleeping, comfort sucking instead of Panadol when she fell over - all these things were written up on my file, discussed at meetings, as things they were working on to stop me doing. And the fact i didn't want to take meds (because it would affect my child thru the breastmilk), was another mark against me. I was in a daze, baffled by so much negativity, every day went by, i doubted myself and my parenting more and more.

But i met a women who took her baby to the sleep school (also run by same public hospy) for babies UNDER 12 months. She had a totally different experience. Her parenting style was respected. The staff collaborated with her, to come up with solutions. She was treated respectfully.

I would have loved to have had a similar experience, to her. My experience, felt like a nightmare i could not wake up out of. I kept thinking, it will get better tomorrow, i must give this a chance. But it didn't. I gave up at two weeks. Could not take anymore.

Jakabella

at the four month mark, in retrospect, i wish i had had a baby hammock (for put down sleeps) and a baby sling (for sleeping on me, hands free) to help with my child's sleeping.

have you tried "white noise" in the baby's room? (a radio, on low, not quite on a station)

bath before nap time?

swaddling for naps? (so baby can't biff themselves and wake themselves up)

(i don't know what you HAVE tried, so could be well suggesting things you already do/have done.)

If you have the night sleep sorted (young babies have tiny tums, so will wake for feeds), the suggestion to have a "day session" at a sleep school, sounds a good idea. I did a day session at a MCHN, their suggestions were the white noise, really tight swaddling, tight sheets in cot. I coudln't replicate it at home, as they had a really good practical cot (sides very easy to use), and mine was awkward for me to use, i think i roused my bub each time i tried to raise the sides, and being short, i coudln't just put in her over the sides.

if i had my time over, i would have bought a recliner for the baby's room, cos i spent so much time in there, if i had somewhere comfy to feed her and cuddle, maybe she would have slept on me, i would have slept and we BOTH would have gotten sleep. (i'm talking over one here. For the first year, we used bassinet next to my bed and co-sleeping, then cot in my room, then cot in her room, mixed with co-sleeping.