The Aware Parenting Podcast

In this episode, I talk about mild dissociation, how to differentiate it from relaxation, and why that makes a difference to sleep.

I describe what mild dissociation is, why it happens, what the experience of it is, how we can tell if a baby or child is mildly dissociated, and how it affects sleep. I also share about the innate relaxation response and how supporting babies and children with this helps them feel more relaxed, and how their sleep is then different as a result.

If you want to find out more about Aware Parenting, I invite you to come to my website at www.marionrose.net.

If you want to understand more about the fight/flight/freeze response in relation to Aware Parenting, I recommend reading Aletha Solter's book Healing Your Traumatised Child.

In this episode I was so delighted to talk with Erin Dee and Kim Cousins, who are registered nurses who specialise in perinatal mental health.

I LOVED the conversation so much and was in tears several times.

They both share about their journey with Aware Parenting, and the difference it made in their own parenting, including with sleep, and how they then introduced it to mothers in the unit they work in.

They talk about supporting the mothers with expressing their own feelings, and then having the emotional spaciousness to be able to listen to their babies' feelings, and then seeing the difference in their relaxation, connection, feeding and sleep.

I loved the description one mother gave of their 'melty' baby after crying in arms!

They share about the beautiful shifts they often see in breastfeeding when mothers are supported to listen to their baby's feelings and are supported to put themselves in their baby's shoes and connect with what they might be feeling.

They talk about the changes - from mothers feeling stressed in relation to sleep, having their babies 'catnapping' - and then seeing the differences once they understand sleep and Aware Parenting and listening to feelings.

We also talked about the bigger picture, about this culture and the normal needs for support and listening for mothers, and what a huge difference this makes to both mother and baby.

You can find out more about Kim and Erin's work on Instagram @when.held. They have various group and 1-1 offerings available which can be found on their Instagram account.

I so enjoyed this episode, in which I talked with Clare Louise Brumley, an Aware Parenting instructor who has a background in nutrition and integrative medicine, whose PhD was on Evolutionary Medicine and Optimal Human Health.

Clare Louise share about why an evolutionary perspective is important, sleep through an evolutionary lens, and the physiology of sleep and how the modern culture gets in the way. Interwoven through all of this, she talks about the stress response and Aware Parenting and the innate healing response.

Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, from the sense of safety acquired from living and sleeping amongst a community of 30 or 40 people, the effect of electricity and other modern conveniences, and cots.

We emphasised how this evolutionary context can bring deep understanding and compassion to parents, particularly in relation to sleep.

Clare Louise has occasional 1-1 Aware Parenting spaces. You can find her information here: https://marionrose.net/aware-parenting-instructors-in-australia-and-new-zealand/

In this episode, I talk with Steph Fleeton, Aware Parenting instructor and early childhood educator, owner of Spirited Hearts Natural Learning Day Care with her husband Lucas.

She shares about her own experience of practicing Aware Parenting with her children, and the ins and outs of sleep with different children who have different life experiences, including how their sleeping arrangement evolved as her children got older.

She talks in depth about her own experiences in her Natural Learning Haven daycare, supporting children to sleep with an Aware Parenting approach, through deep connection, understanding their cues, play and listening to their feelings.

She also shares about the process she observes when children have come from other daycare centres where they didn't get to choose when to rest or sleep and weren't supported with play and listening to their feelings, and the difference that she observes in them.

She talks about parents' surprise when they see how easily their child sleeps whilst in the daycare.

Please note that Steph shares about her experience of having a spinal tap after giving birth.

You can find out more about Steph's work at https://spiritedhearts.net/, including about her Spirited Hearts Approach to Early Learning Certification Program.

You can find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/spirited_hearts/

You can find The Spirited Hearts podcast here: https://spiritedhearts.buzzsprout.com/

In this episode, I share about how parents can be the researchers with Aware Parenting. I invite a process where you first listen in to whether something resonates with you, and if it does, then to experiment and to observe your baby or child. I share about all the things you can observe to see if what you are doing is helpful for them or not. And if something is happening that is different, then there's an invitation to pause, to find out new information about what might be going on, to listen in again to yourself about whether this resonates and to see if you want to continue experimenting and observing.

If you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can do that at: http://eepurl.com/8ifhn or you can find out how to on my website at: www.marionrose.net

In this episode of The Aware Parenting Podcast, I talk with Sarah Mason, an Aware Parenting instructor and mother of an almost three year old. She shares the journey of Aware Parenting that she's been on and all the intricacies of Aware Parenting and sleep that she's learnt along the way. She talks about all the things she tried with sleep before learning about Aware Parenting, including a dummy and a sleep consultant, and all the differences she observed with each approach, including Aware Parenting. She also shares about what happened when they went camping, and the shifts that happened in sleep over time with each step in the practice.

You can find out more about Sarah's work at https://awaremum.com.au/ and https://www.instagram.com/awaremum/

In this episode, I talk about how Aware Parenting's overall approach to trusting babies and children in relation to everything also applies to sleep.

That instead of them fighting sleep, we are often fighting their natural relaxation processes.

And hat these natural processes are the same as those innate ways that they heal from stress and trauma.

And the most important thing in supporting sleep is freeing ourselves from our cultural conditioning around sleep, our adultism, and doing our own healing in relation to sleep, including in our own infancy and childhood.

If you want more information about my upcoming course, workshop and book on sleep, I invite you to follow me on social media or sign up for my newsletter, which you can do at www.marionrose.net

In this episode, I talk with my dear friend and colleague, Helena Mooney, who is an Aware Parenting instructor and Hand in Hand instructor. She shares about her experience of starting off with Classical Attachment Parenting with her daughter, and how little sleep she had, and how exhausted she was. She shares about how weird she found Aware Parenting at first, and her unsureness in practicing it at the beginning, and how different it was from Classical Attachment Parenting.

Then she talks about how that perception changed as she saw what a difference it made to her daughter's sleep. The change took a bit of a while because her daughter had a backlog of feelings, and she explains this process. Along with getting more sleep again, her daughter also stopped hitting once she started Aware Parenting. She then goes on to share about what a huge difference she experienced with her second child and sleep, starting practicing Aware Parenting at the beginning; she expresses the difference in sleep between the two of them being "night and day."

You can find out about Helena's work at www.parentingwithplay.com.au

and mine at www.marionrose.net

In this episode, I talk with Maru Rojas, an Aware Parenting instructor in the UK who shares about her very different experience with sleep with her first child and second child. The first time around, her baby was very restless all night long or was feeding for most of the night and she had very little sleep. She learnt about Aware Parenting and gradually, sleep changed. The second time around, she started with Aware Parenting from the beginning and her son slept peacefully and for much longer periods. She talked about the time it took to support her daughter to 'catch up' with expressing feelings that had been repressed, the trauma she experienced of having so little sleep, and how she called for help from her mum to support her with listening to feelings with her second child. She also offers parents the invitation to listen in deeply to themselves and to create a sleep set-up that works for their unique family. We also talk about the relief of not needing to try to get babies to sleep quickly, why there's no such thing as 'overtired' in Aware Parenting, and the ease of babies sleeping peacefully when there's noise around or we need to move them whilst they're sleeping.

Maru also specialises in Elimination Communication and potty learning. She offers 1-1 consultations, an online mothers' circle and online courses. You can find out more about her and her work at: https://parenttogether.co.uk/ and on social media at https://www.instagram.com/_maru.rojas_/

In this episode, I talked with Joss Goulden, an Aware Parenting instructor who hosts The Aware Parenting Stories Podcast and who co-hosts The Aware Parenting and Natural Learning Podcast with me. Joss shared about her own journey with sleep as a mother, including her son's frequent waking until she found out about Aware Parenting. We also talked about cultural and historical perspectives to sleep, and why that can be so helpful as parents, particularly in terms of co-sleeping, which we also talked a lot about. Joss also offered lots of information about teens and sleep, and how to support teens with the three things needed for sound sleep.

You can find out more about Joss and her work at: www.awareparenting.com.au and on social media at Aware Parenting with Joss.

You can find out more about my work at www.marionrose.net and https://www.instagram.com/_marion_rose_/ and https://www.facebook.com/MarionRosePhD