The BBC Investigated Baby Sleep Consultants. Here's What Every Parent in Ireland Needs to Know.
By Jen Crawford | Doula Trainer | Birth & Postpartum Professional | Ireland
The BBC went undercover. Reporters posed as parents, hired baby sleep consultants, and filmed what happened.
What they found was shocking — and if you are a parent in Ireland who has ever googled "sleep training" at 3am, this matters to you.
What the BBC Investigation Found
In 2025, a BBC undercover investigation revealed self-described infant sleep experts giving advice that directly contradicts NHS and HSE safer sleep guidance. On camera, one consultant told a mother to place her newborn to sleep on their front.
Front sleeping in newborns significantly increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
This is not a fringe finding. This is the advice that was being sold to exhausted, vulnerable parents who trusted that the person calling themselves a sleep consultant knew what they were doing.
Here is what makes that even more alarming: in Ireland, as in the UK, there is no regulatory body for infant sleep consultants. There is no required training, no minimum standard, no licensing process. Anyone can call themselves a sleep consultant. Anyone can charge hundreds of euro for advice that puts babies at risk.
You deserve to know that.
What the Science Actually Says About Baby Sleep
Professor Helen Ball is one of the world's leading infant sleep researchers. She directs the Baby Sleep Information Source (BASIS) at Durham University, where her team has spent decades studying what normal infant sleep actually looks like.
Her conclusion, supported by years of peer-reviewed research, is simple and clear: frequent night waking in infants is biologically normal. It is not a problem to be solved.
Human babies are born more neurologically immature than any other primate. They are wired to be held close, fed frequently, and kept near their caregivers — day and night. This is not a design flaw. This is biology. This is evolution. This is what kept our species alive.
What is not normal — what is not evidence-based — is the cultural expectation that a baby should sleep through the night, alone, in a separate room, from the earliest weeks of life.
The Sleep Training Industry and Exhausted Parents
The infant sleep industry is a multi-million euro business built on parental exhaustion.
When a mother finds herself Googling at 3am, desperate and depleted, she is vulnerable. The industry knows this. It sells certainty, schedules, and the promise of sleep — often without the evidence to back it up, and sometimes with advice that is actively dangerous.
Professor Ball's work makes clear: it is not baby sleep that needs fixing. It is parents' expectations of it — expectations that have been shaped by a culture that prioritises productivity over biology, and convenience over connection.
Night waking is your baby doing exactly what evolution designed them to do.
The Safe Sleep 7: What You Need to Know
If you are already bedsharing, or considering it, here is what the evidence says about doing it safely.
The Safe Sleep 7 (La Leche League International) outlines the conditions under which bedsharing carries the lowest possible risk:
Non-smoker (no smoking in the home or outside)
Sober — no alcohol or sedating medication
Breastfeeding
Healthy, full-term baby
Baby on their back
Baby lightly dressed, not swaddled
Firm mattress, no soft bedding or pillows near baby
When all seven conditions are met, research indicates the risk of SIDS is no greater in the parental bed than in a cot.
If you are not breastfeeding, the safest option is a bedside cot or separate sleep surface alongside your bed.
The sofa and the armchair are the most dangerous places to fall asleep with your baby. If you are exhausted and feeding at night, please make your bed safe before you need it.
For safe sleep guidance in Ireland, visit: hse.ie
For evidence-based sleep information: basisonline.org.uk
For Safe Sleep 7 resources: llli.org
The Role of Doulas in Supporting Families Around Infant Sleep
One of the most important things a birth doula or postpartum doula can do is help families access accurate, evidence-based information — including around infant sleep.
Doulas do not prescribe sleep training. Doulas do not sell schedules or promise through-the-night sleep. What doulas do is sit alongside families in the reality of new parenthood and help them understand what is normal, what is safe, and what their options actually are.
If you are a birth or postpartum professional in Ireland, this is exactly the kind of education that belongs in your toolkit.
Doula Training in Ireland with Jen Crawford
If you are passionate about providing families with evidence-based, parent-centred support — including around normal infant sleep, safe bedsharing, and the fourth trimester — my doula training programme may be the right next step for you.
I offer:
Birth and Postpartum Doula Training — accredited, evidence-based, values-led training for birth and postpartum doulas in Ireland. My training is built around the whole woman, the whole family, and the whole picture. That includes infant sleep, safe sleep, breastfeeding support, and the postnatal period.
CPD Days for Birth Professionals — continuing professional development for midwives, doulas, lactation consultants and other birth workers who want to deepen their knowledge and stay current with the evidence.
1:1 Coaching — for parents who want to feel genuinely informed and supported in the postnatal period, and for birth professionals who want to grow their practice with clarity and confidence.
Find out more at jen-crawford.com
The Bottom Line
The BBC investigation is a warning.
In an unregulated industry, families are vulnerable. The answer is not more fear — it is more knowledge. Accurate, evidence-based, parent-centred knowledge.
Your baby's night waking is not a problem.
Your instinct to respond to your baby is not weakness.
The sleep industry profits from telling you otherwise. You do not have to buy it.
Jen Crawford is a birth and postpartum doula trainer, life and business coach, and co-founder of DoulaCare Ireland. She offers doula training, CPD days, and 1:1 coaching for birth professionals and families across Ireland. Find out more at jen-crawford.com
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