Beyond Sleep Consultant Certification: How Mommywise Sets the Standard

The Rise of the “Certified Sleep Consultant”

When I first started sleep training babies with my firstborn in 2004, there was no such thing as a “Certified Sleep Consultant”. There were sleep training books written by Ferber and Weissbluth and a couple of other male pediatricians who never actually sleep trained real babies in person! Then there was Kim West, otherwise known as the Sleep Lady, who had a book and an early sleep consulting business. In 2010, about the same time as I began exclusively offering tailored, in-home sleep training packages, Kim West launched the Sleep Lady Sleep Coach Certification Program. Shortly thereafter, in 2011, Deborah Pedrick, another pediatric sleep consultant, launched the Family Sleep Institute and co-founded the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants with – you guessed it – Kim West! Since then, the “Certified Sleep Consultant” trend has grown exponentially. Many other certification companies emerged, and thousands of new sleep consulting businesses launch every year.

Now, everywhere you look, there’s a new “Certified Sleep Consultant”. Why? Because early baby sleep consultants like Kim West and Deborah Pedrick learned that “certifying” sleep consultants was far more profitable than the DIY sleep consulting packages they sold. Instead of $200-$500 per package, certifications sold for $5,000-$7,000 a pop. 

The certifying companies saw a great business opportunity. There was a demand from individuals (mostly women) who wanted part-time, work-from-home income solutions, so the sleep consultant certification programs were offered as kind of a “business in a box” training. These courses include training about baby sleep, but the curriculum also teaches how to launch and run a business. So at $5,000 – $7,000 per student, these courses brought in a much higher revenue stream than sleep consulting packages. After certification, sleep consultants also pay licensing fees to be listed on websites like the Family Sleep Institute and International Association of Child Sleep Consultants, where you can find thousands of “certified” sleep consultants on every continent – another great revenue stream for the certification companies!

What troubles me is this: Anyone can purchase a sleep consultant certification course, and none of the certification courses include real-time sleep training of actual babies. 

Certification companies offer virtual business training and curriculum about the particular sleep training method they teach (they’re all very similar), and how to package and sell inexpensive DIY sleep training “plans”, but no real-time curriculum sleep training a real baby. After over 21 years of sleep training babies in person, I find it kind of horrifying that none of these certified sleep consultants have had any training about sleep training babies in person! Like, seriously, that’s just bananas.

Does Certification Mean Genuine Experience?

As a parent, you assume that certification equals expertise, but in this case, it does not. You want a baby sleep expert who has years of first-hand, real-time experience in sleep training babies. Certified sleep consultants don’t necessarily have experience working with babies in person, and many (unfortunately) have zero firsthand experience. This is just one of the reasons I have issues with the sleep consultant certification companies. I honestly just don’t understand. How can certified sleep consultants who have no real experience give parents a realistic idea of what sleep training looks like in real life? How can they guide parents when the sleep training “plan” doesn’t go according to plan (it never does!)?

The Alternative: Real-time Guidance With Mommywise

I would never give any parent a sleep training “plan” without real-time guidance. I would never tell a parent to let their baby cry and follow a branded sleep training method that’s meant to work for all babies because a) they simply don’t work for all babies, and b) they lead to far more crying and distress for babies than if we customize the sleep training approach in real time for the child who’s learning independent sleep skills. 

Because here’s the thing. Sleep training isn’t a one-size-fits-all plan. It’s a process. It’s iterative. We learn as we work with babies what works for them, and what doesn’t. We observe their body language. We listen to their voices. We partner with parents to help them understand which cries are normal and which cries require an immediate response. By doing this, we’re keeping babies safe, responding to all their needs, helping parents understand the difference between their baby’s habits and genuine needs, while we’re helping babies master independent sleep skills faster and easier than any sleep consultant can. 

What Sleep Consultant Certification Actually Means

Sleep Consultant Certification means that individuals complete anywhere between 3-11 months of virtual business and sleep consulting training with instructors who may also have no experience in sleep training actual babies. Students learn about the branded sleep training method that the certification company teaches (“gentle”, the Shuffle, the Chair Method, etc). Methods vary slightly, but they’re all very similar. They all include leaving the baby to cry with various methods of intermittent soothing. Some recommend patting and soothing your baby from the side of the crib, another says to sit in a chair and gradually move away from the crib, while another method tells parents to pick up their baby, soothe, then put down again, until baby falls asleep. Repeat every time the baby wakes all night. All certification companies claim that babies cannot be sleep trained before 4 months (not true, we do it all the time!) and all of them teach that sleep training at night must be accomplished before working on naps (also not true, we help babies learn to sleep independently night and day at the same time because it’s far faster and easier for babies than dragging the training out for weeks!). 

The Gap Between Book Knowledge and Real-World Baby Behavior

We can all learn a great deal from books and online courses, but how to work with babies is simply not one of the things you should learn from books or online courses. Babies are human. As humans, babies are all unique and respond differently to different sleep training approaches. For example, what works for a younger baby who may need more hands-on support is not going to work for an older baby or toddler who can stand in the crib and yell at you! And what works for a toddler that you can communicate with is not going to work for a baby.

I hear sleep training horror stories all the time from parents who have worked with sleep consultants and experienced frightening incidents. Babies who cried for over 4 hours. Babies who vomited repeatedly. Babies who cry for weeks or months while parents try different methods, only to give up. And frankly, we see some crazy, frightening things when we work with babies in person! One baby I worked with started choking on his back, and he couldn’t roll yet. We scooped him up within a second because I had a sense this might happen (he had a lot of mucus left over from a cold), and we were right by his door. Another baby I saw got visibly ill on the 3rd night of sleep training, but his parents didn’t see it and wanted to push on. He cried harder at bedtime than he did the previous two days, and I was convinced that he was unwell because he kept crying out in his sleep. His parents wanted to stick to the plan and not go into his room, but I insisted, and we learned that he had a 102 fever at 1am. In this case, we aborted our “plan” and just took care of his needs. In the morning, we saw that he had blisters on his top gum because his 4 top front teeth were trying to push through. I wonder what these parents would have done if they were following a sleep training “plan”? 

What Real Expertise Looks Like in Baby Sleep Training

What is a baby sleep expert, and how are they different from certified sleep consultants? A baby sleep expert has years of experience helping parents teach their babies to sleep in real time. They don’t just come for a few hours or an overnight; a true baby sleep expert has spent thousands of hours sitting with parents day and night, guiding them through sleep training for bedtime, overnight, and for naps. A genuine baby sleep expert recognizes patterns, understands babies’ cries, and foresees any dangerous outcomes because they’ve seen it all before. They also understand that sleep training can be really emotional, and they know how to guide parents through the rollercoaster of emotions throughout the process. A baby sleep expert with this kind of firsthand experience isn’t “certified” by one of the sleep consultant certification companies; they have years of experience. All Mommywise Coaches have this level of experience, and it shows in our 100% success rate and online reviews. 

Mommywise: The Original Experts in In-Home Sleep Training

Hi, I’m Natalie Nevares, founder of Mommywise and pioneer of in-home sleep training support, and the person behind this blog. Since I sleep-trained my firstborn in 2004, my team and I have helped thousands of parents and babies recover countless hours of sleep by sitting with parents in their homes before, during and after sleep training. We stay with families throughout the whole process so that sleep training goes smoothly and easily, and leads to sustainable success. We have a 100% success rate because our support exclusively includes in-home guidance from a sleep training expert with thousands of hours of experience working with babies, and because our support is fully tailored for each child in real time. We know that our tailored approach works, because we’ve had over 15 years of evidence that it works every time!

How Mommywise Coaches are Trained — In Person

Fun Fact: Mommywise Coaches are trained the opposite way that most sleep consultants are. First, trainees must apply to be trained by me. They must have at least 10 years of experience as a postpartum doula or newborn care specialist before they are invited to apply. They must already know how to support parents through difficult transitions, like when they just come home from the hospital, through the first 3-5 months of their baby’s life. They must have advanced training in lactation, bottle feeding, and years of glowing references before I will even entertain training them in the Mommywise Method. If I agree to train someone, they then have to wait for me to offer training in Florida. All of our team has been trained in a mansion near Disney World. We have volunteer parents bring their babies so that trainees can observe how we coach parents through the process, and customize our approach for each baby in real time. From there, Mommywise Coaches receive a year of ongoing training and 1:1 mentoring before they’re even considered for a position on the Mommywise team. Of the 45 women I’ve trained nationwide, only 10 of them have ever been on the Mommywise team. Only the most exceptional individuals with the most experience have made it onto the Mommywise team!

Now that you know more about certified sleep consultants and how they differ from Mommywise Coaches, I hope it’s clear why our in-home, tailored services are the “Gold Standard” for sleep training support. And, I hope that you now know that certification doesn’t equal experience or expertise. In my opinion, sleep consultant certifications are useless and misleading because they don’t include any training of real babies, and there’s no real-time support offered in the packages they sell.