Sleep Consulting as a Postpartum Doula with Jenèt Morrison

 

Jenèt is a mom of seven children, and certified postpartum doula, pediatric sleep consultant and lactation educator counselor. She is the owner of The Night Mommy, and supports postpartum families both in person in North County San Diego, CA and virtually all over the world. Jenèt is passionate about the importance of adequate sleep for parents and their children, and the benefits a full night of sleep brings emotionally and physically to their families, especially in the fourth trimester! Sleep Consulting as a Postpartum Doula

Links: Sleep Consulting as a Postpartum Doula

Website: The Night Mommy

Instagram: @thenightmommy

TikTok: thenightmommy

 

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Transcript: Sleep Consulting as a Postpartum Doula

Intro: Welcome to Becoming a Sleep Consultant! I’m your host Jayne Havens, a certified sleep consultant and founder of both Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens and Center for Pediatric Sleep Management.

On this podcast, I’ll be discussing the business side of sleep consulting. You’ll have an insider’s view on launching, growing, and even scaling a sleep consulting business. This is not a podcast about sleep training. This is a podcast about business building and entrepreneurship.

Jenèt is a mom of seven children, and certified postpartum doula, pediatric sleep consultant and lactation educator counselor. She is the owner of The Night Mommy, and supports postpartum families both in person in North County San Diego, CA and virtually all over the world.

Jenèt is passionate about the importance of adequate sleep for parents and their children, and the benefits of full night of sleep brings emotionally and physically to their families, especially in the fourth trimester.

Jayne Havens: Jenèt, welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so thrilled to have you back on the show today.

Jenèt Morrison: Oh, Jayne, it’s so great to see you again. Thank you for having me back. I’m happy to be here.

Jayne Havens: Of course. Before we get started, since it’s been a minute, would you share a bit about yourself and your career as both a doula and now a sleep consultant?

Jenèt Morrison: Yes, I would love to. So I have been a postpartum doula now going on six years. Once I started supporting families, it was very, very instant that I knew this is literally what I was meant to be doing. I also found that things that I wasn’t really expecting happened, like as far as the bonds that were made with the moms and the clients. I kind of had always joked, before I even knew what a postpartum doula was, that if I could find a way to get paid holding and snuggling newborns, that would be like my dream job.

And so I kind of honestly went into it a little bit with that as a goal but ended up forming these amazing bonds and relationships with my clients, the moms. I also found, though, that when I started supporting clients, the two areas that really kept coming up where clients needed extra support was in lactation and then sleep.

So I became a certified lactation educator soon after becoming a doula. Because I breastfed all seven of my kids and thankfully had an easy time doing it each time. So I really thought I knew a lot about breastfeeding. I found that a lot of my clients had struggles, and I wanted to be able to support them better. Then I, soon after that, decided to add sleep consulting to my business as well.

Jayne Havens: And so you enrolled in CPSM — I looked back — in October of 2021. I’m wondering. Look, like you sort of explained that sleep was an area of concern or a high need for your clients. But what made you really feel like you wanted to dive in and actually get certified to be a sleep consultant, rather than just like grabbing a book or reading online a little bit? What made you think that you actually wanted to get this higher level of education?

Jenèt Morrison: Yeah, so I had started my business as a postpartum doula on my own. When I first became a doula, I was working with an agency. And so when I went out on my own, I was finding myself being booked out and having to turn away potential clients because I’m only one person. And when you have families with due dates that are around the same time, you can’t be in two places at one time. I wanted to be able to scale my business and also be able to support my clients better with sleep.

Also, I was finding that not only were these families asking about their newborn or what to expect down the road as their baby got older, but a lot of them had toddlers that were going through things with sleep. They would bring it up a lot of the times, and I’d be there. Or, they’d make jokes like the newborn is not that hard at night. It’s the two year old or the three year old. And so I just felt like it would be also a way that I could have this relationship with my clients beyond the time that I was with them as a doula.

Jayne Havens: Can you speak to a little bit what it looks like for you to support families? It sounds like you’re doing virtual sleep consulting. But then you’re also using your skills as a sleep consultant when you’re in-person as a postpartum doula. Can you touch on both of those things a little bit?

Jenèt Morrison: Yeah, definitely. So I get referrals sometimes from my postpartum doula clients. They will tell a friend about their experience having me as their doula, and I will be supporting those clients just virtually with sleep consulting. I’ve also had a lot of my doula clients reach out to me months down the road after I’ve stopped supporting them as their doula, because now baby is going through the eight-month sleep regression or, again, the toddler is still not sleeping well. And so they reach out to me, and I am able to support them virtually, which it’s really nice.

Because I, again, form these special bonds and relationships with my clients. And so whenever that time of in-person support comes to an end, a lot of times we both feel like we’re not ready for it to be over. And so I love that even though it may be time for that part of our relationship, our journey, to end, the sleep consulting, the fact that it is done virtually, does allow me to continue to support their family well beyond those first 12 weeks postpartum.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I would imagine like oftentimes you’re booked out several months in advance. So you’re working with one family. You move on to another family. You move on to another family. If you’re sort of booked solid, your only option for supporting someone is virtual sleep consulting if you’re already booked with a client postpartum. So it allows you to sort of stack your work a little bit.

Jenèt Morrison: Exactly. I actually had a first. It happened just a couple of weeks ago. Typically, what happens is I support them first as their doula in person. Then a lot of times, months down the road or even sometimes a year later, they’ll reach out wanting sleep consulting. I recently had a client who — she had seen a recommendation for me as a postpartum doula on a Facebook mom’s group. This was maybe about a year and a half to two years ago that she first reached out, and she just had questions.

She already had two boys at the time who were small. She just had questions, because she and her husband were toying with the idea of adding a third. She wanted to know what it looks like to have overnight support and asked about my availability and everything. Then we had a great conversation. I had never really spoke to somebody that wasn’t even pregnant yet asking about my services.

But anyway, fast forward, she reached out again to let me know that they were trying and wanted to see what my availability would be like in the future. Then I got the text from her when she found out she was pregnant. She was so excited and literally booked my services. I think it was the day she found out that she was pregnant. But she’s not due until July, this coming July of 2024. She reached out and said, “Can we meet in person? Because I’d love to meet you in person before the baby comes.”

We met for coffee. We’re having a great conversation. She had brought up the fact that both of her boys, she and her husband, were having to fall asleep in the room with them. Her husband was sleeping on a very uncomfortable mattress or sometimes on the floor between the boys. And they’re five and three. She had a question for me about, what does it look like for you when you’re here doing an overnight for the newborn and if the toddler wakes up?

She said she and her husband were really nervous about what it’s going to look like when they add a newborn with the sleep issues because none of them were getting good sleep at all. I mean, the five year old was waking up multiple times a night. And if dad wasn’t in the room, still he’d be crying out for them, or he’d come into their room crying a lot of times waking up the little brother, who was actually a better sleeper. She just said, “We’re really nervous that he’s going to do the same with the newborn and that we’re going to really not be — none of us are going to be getting good sleep.”

So I casually said, yeah, it’s a good idea to get that under control now. Because in my experience, when you have the baby come home, sometimes toddlers, older siblings, they go through a hard time with that adjustment. And so there is that possibility. It could get worse. You don’t want to be trying to make big changes to where they might associate it with, the new sibling.

Later that day, she reached out to me and said that she had talked to her husband. They were absolutely, “Right. We need to get this under control.” So they booked my support. And within three days, they had the boys sleeping in separate bedrooms, falling asleep in their own beds, in their own rooms. I think she believed in me because, obviously, she had wanted to hire me and did hire me as her doula. I told her I could help with this situation, but I don’t think they believed it could happen as quickly as it did.

It just felt so amazing to be able to support their family ahead of time, and I still have this time to look forward to the summer when their third baby comes home. I’m just so proud for their family that they got sleep to a completely different place. And really, it has changed so much for their family so that they don’t have to be so nervous about bringing the newborn home.

Jayne Havens: What an incredible story. You weren’t even their doula yet.

Jenèt Morrison: Exactly.

Jayne Havens: Usually, it probably happens the other way around, right?

Jenèt Morrison: Exactly.

Jayne Havens: Usually, you support them with their newborn, and you’re there for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. You phase yourself out, and then they circle back around later. This time, it was the other way around. I love that. That’s such an awesome story.

Jenèt Morrison: Me, too.

Jayne Havens: They’re going to trust you. They’re going to trust you implicitly. I mean, not that your other clients don’t. I would imagine just from knowing you over the years, I think you exude this sense of trustworthiness. I don’t know of any other way to say it.

Jenèt Morrison: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: As a mom of seven, you’ve been through it before. You’re obviously very good at what you do. I think people just feel comfortable with you. It’s definitely a strength of yours. And now I think you’ve just kicked that up a notch for this family. Because if you could get their three and five year olds sleeping independently after just a few nights, then I think that they’re going to feel so confident about this new baby arriving. I just love that.

Jenèt Morrison: I do too. And I think it was a good experience for me too, because I sort of have gotten into my comfort zone. I mostly do work with newborns, obviously. But even with sleep training, it tends to be babies between four and six months that I’m mostly doing sleep training with. I don’t really get a lot of toddlers, and so I was a little bit scared to take it on. I mean, I knew what she was telling me. It was like, I know I can get this to a better place than what you guys are experiencing right now. But it definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone with smaller babies, and it was so much fun.

Because with toddlers, there’s just so many different things that you can do. I love your idea of sending the video, which I did make a video to them for the boys and ask them. If you guys sleep through the night, will you send me a picture tomorrow? Give me a thumbs up so that I can celebrate you. And they did. Oh, my gosh. Getting that picture in the morning the first night that they both slept in their beds, in their own rooms, I was just like I couldn’t have been more proud of them. And I’ve never even met them, so it’s amazing.

Jayne Havens: It’s great. I’m glad that you got to experience that. When I first started my journey as a sleep consultant, I also primarily worked with babies. It was just, first of all, I think what was coming my way as a young mom with little kids myself. Then also, it was my comfort zone. I had sleep trained my own kids when they were four months old, so I was comfortable with infants.

The idea of supporting a family with a two year old that had a kid in a bed rather than a crib, that was very overwhelming to me in the beginning when I was first getting started. Now it’s absolutely my preference to work with older children. I think it is so much fun helping these parents to feel empowered to take back the reins on bedtime and what sleep looks like in their homes. I always tell parents: when your two year old or your three year old is in charge of what bedtime looks like, usually, it’s not very good, right? So we want parents to be in charge of what bedtime looks like and really empowering parents to feel comfortable with that being okay.

For whatever reason, they’re so uncomfortable with that sometimes. And empowering parents that it’s okay to be in charge of your own house, right? Your two and a half year old is not the boss of your household. They can have choices in a lot of areas. There’s a lot of things that we can give them autonomy over, but sleep is not one of them. It’s so empowering.

Jenèt Morrison: Right. And to remind the parents of what their child is capable. I think I see this a lot with parents, where they get into situations that they never were intending to, whether it’s co-sleeping, or dad is sleeping in another room for months and months at a time because the baby ends up in bed with mom. Mom is nursing all night. They’re realizing it’s affecting their marriage. It’s affecting so many different areas of their lives.

With older kids, a five year old, it’s like he was not getting the sleep that he needed. It was affecting him emotionally. And so I think, yeah, to remind them that we can make this a positive thing. I think they were sort of looking at it as sometimes parents do, where it was like something they were doing to him if they were to start setting boundaries.

I just really came in with them and went alongside them and said, “You know, we’re going to make this a totally positive thing. We’re going to make this a fun thing. We’re going to remind these boys that they’re capable of this.” I think it was really a neat experience for them as parents to see they can do it. They did it. So it’s a good reminder.

Jayne Havens: That’s a good one. I love that. Let’s go back to the newborns for a second. Maybe this has evolved a little bit. Thinking back to like 2021 all the way to now, I’m sure it’s maybe a little bit more second nature for you now. But when you first started, when you were doing your postpartum doula work and you had just gotten your sleep consultant certification, what sorts of things were you integrating into your work as a doula that maybe were different or new?

Now I’m sure it’s like you don’t even think about it. But in the beginning, were there things that you added into your practice as just sort of common practice to get these babies set up for success that you weren’t doing before?

Jenèt Morrison: Definitely. I think before, a lot of time it was mainly just the parent’s goal was to get as much sleep as they could while I was there overnight. There wasn’t really a lot of conversation about the day time. Obviously, I would ask, how was your day today? Or, I occasionally get a text about how the day was going. Or, if they were in a rough spot, they would ask for advice. But I think now it’s just, like you said, second nature. I’d go in and I let them know.

If your goal is to have the baby sleeping as many hours as possible by the time I am no longer here, then it’s really important that daytime sleep, what you do during the day, is going to set you up for that success. And so that is definitely something that we talk about right off the bat. And also, making sure that we’re on the same page. A lot of my clients, they don’t have seven nights of care.

They have maybe three to five nights that I’m there, and then they have some nights that they’re not. And so I always like to keep them really updated about what things I do at night as far as the sleep shaping so that they are doing the same on the nights that I’m not there.

I think, too, sometimes, in the beginning, maybe if a baby was really fussy or something, you end up holding them. I just really know as a parent. It’s like, I can’t do these things that they are not sustainable for them on the nights I’m not there. And so just really trying to give the newborn those opportunities to fall asleep on their own after they’ve been fed, rather than just holding them to sleep or holding them while they sleep.

Because for most families that I support, that is not sustainable for them on the nights I’m not there or after I’m no longer physically supporting them. And so, yeah, I would say it’s a lot of newborn sleep shaping but also educating them about what things they can do during the daytime to set them up and their baby up for success overnight.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I would imagine, like, I’m not there with you but I feel like I know what you’re doing. I feel like you’re probably doing a lot of crib side soothing and the shimmy of the chest a little bit.

Jenèt Morrison: Exactly.

Jayne Havens: Stroking down the forehead to the nose, and really showing parents that every time a baby squeals, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to be fed or held. Not that they shouldn’t be fed and held. They should. But meeting their actual needs and supporting them to learn to be comfortable. I always talk about horizontal naps. When your baby can sleep horizontally in their bassinet or crib during the day, then they’re better positioned do that same position overnight, stuff like that.

Jenèt Morrison: It’s so cute. One of the dads of one of the families I supported, he calls the soothing techniques that you just described, he calls it ‘the Jenèt way.’ I thought that was really cute. Because they would sometimes go, like, “What did you do?” Because in the morning, they’re asking how the night went. I’m telling them, oh, well, he slept from this time to this time. Then they have a night where I’m not there. Then the next time they see me, it’s like, “What did you do? How did you make that happen?”

And so I love to educate my clients and show them so that they feel empowered to do those things, again, when I’m not there and help boost their confidence, especially first-time parents. And so yeah, I think it’s great for them to be able to see that their baby can fall asleep on their own, and see the connection that most times they sleep better when they’ve fallen asleep on their own in their sleep space rather than being transferred there. And so yeah, it’s all of those tips that are so valuable and honestly I wish I knew when I had my babies.

Jayne Havens: What about when you’re going on interviews with prospective clients? Are you now leaning much more heavily on your expertise in sleep to articulate your value as a postpartum doula?

Jenèt Morrison: Yeah, I’ve been so fortunate that my business really, really has grown. And it’s mostly going that way based on referrals, so it makes it so easy. Honestly, I would say, over the past year, I don’t have to go on many interviews anymore with prospective clients because I’m getting prospective clients that reach out to me. They’re just like—

Jayne Havens: They just want to book you as fast as possible before somebody else keeps you up.

Jenèt Morrison: Exactly. Like, “You were my friend’s doula, or my neighbor, or my coworker. And she said we have to get you when we announced we were pregnant.” And so, again, yeah, I don’t really go on that many interviews anymore. A lot of it just happens over the phone. They reach out and say, “We’re interested.”

Sometimes it does come up when they’re asking if they’re unsure of what exactly it looks like to have overnight support. A lot of times, I will let them know that that is a skill set that I bring to the table, that I can help them. I let them know that a lot of the families I do support overnight, see their babies, around eight weeks sleeping through the night or maybe only waking for one feed. So it’s definitely a bonus for sure.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, absolutely. What about goals for the future? If you’re already sort of booked solid, how do you see your business growing in the coming years? Or maybe you’re happy with where it is now. But I’m wondering if you envision yourself wanting to do even more virtually. I know you said you’re supporting, I think, five-ish families a month virtually, which is not nothing. That’s definitely a handful. Is that how you see yourself growing your business in the future?

Jenèt Morrison: Yeah, I actually would love to do a digital course so that I can help more families, that maybe can’t afford to do one-on-one support but still want to have the benefits, the knowledge and the tips and have that as a resource to them. So that’s something that I have as a goal. I would love to be able to expand my business, as far as maybe bringing somebody or a team on to do a little bit more of the in-person work so that I can do more of the consulting.

I’m finding that I really, really, I love it so much and the fact that I am able to support more families that way virtually than I can in person. Those are a few goals that I have, for sure.

Jayne Havens: I think that those things will happen for you. I also can envision you doing — I don’t know if you’ve thought about this — group coaching. I think since so many of your clients come to you by way of referral, everybody that hires you has six friends that would also love your help at the same time. Right?

Jenèt Morrison: Right, yeah.

Jayne Havens: Maybe you could set up sort of a group coaching program, whether it be in person or virtual and having sort of little village support sessions. I think that would work really well for your audience that’s mostly referral-based.

Before we wrap up, share where people can learn more about you. I know you have a really impressive social media account that’s sort of really exploding right now, which is really exciting. So share your Instagram and anything else that you want to share with our listeners.

Jenèt Morrison: Thank you. So yes, you can find me at @thenightmommy on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. I’m trying to get on TikTok a little bit more than I am now. Thankful that I have kids in their 20s and teenagers that can teach you, guiding me through that. But yeah, so @thenightmommy is my handle on those accounts. Then my website is www.thenightmommy.com.

Jayne Havens: Perfect. Thank you so much for taking the time to have this conversation with me today. It’s so nice to see you in person. I feel like we haven’t been on Zoom together face to face in a while.

Jenèt Morrison: It has been a while.

Jayne Havens: It’s been too long, so it’s really great to see you. And congrats on all of your success.

Jenèt Morrison: Thank you so much.

Jayne Havens: I am here cheering you on always. You know that.

Jenèt Morrison: Thank you, Jayne. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me.

Outro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, it would mean so much to me if you would rate, review, and subscribe. When you rate, review, and subscribe, this helps the podcast reach a greater audience. I am so grateful for your support.

If you would like to learn more about how you can become a certified sleep consultant, head over to my Facebook Group, Becoming a Sleep Consultant or to my website thecpsm.com. Thanks so much, and I hope you will tune in for the next episode.