>I was wondering if Australia is the only place in the world which has what I
>term 'sleep schools', Mother/baby units, staffed by midwives or nurses often
>attached to hospitals where babies are taught to sleep and mothers are
>taught to make their babies sleep through controlled crying (or controlled
>comforting as it is sometimes termed)  It's the flavour of the month around
>here.  In fact I attended one with my first child, but 'failed' the course -
>my child resisted the methods and never slept through the night.  It worries
>me because I feel it sets up unachievable (in many cases) ideas on sleep,
>and in the long-term leaves mothers feeling even more that the child not
>sleeping well is their fault.  (If they just followed instructions
>*properly* their babies would sleep)  Also, to sleep according to a routine
>they also need to feed to a routine, even fairly young babies.

Barbara,
  We do not have sleep schools in the U.S. (as far as I know) but
there are many many books on the market about getting your baby to
sleep through the night and there are clinics and high priced consulations
available by "experts" in the field to teach parents to get their
kids to sleep through the night.
 Seems to me that if there are that many books, videos, classes and
schools to get babies to sleep through the night, then maybe babies
weren't meant to sleep through the night. The longer I've been at this,
as a parent and a professional in the field, the more I believe that
sleeping for 8 hour stretches isn't really natural for anyone,
certainly not throughout the life span. Where did we get that idea
anyway?
  Naomi Bar-Yam

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