Timeline of development of The Possums Sleep Program
| Year | Development event |
|---|---|
| 1987-1989 | I worked as a GP at the Brisbane Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service, and also spent a week in an outstation on Pitjantjara Lands, on a trip led by a well-known First Nations traditional owner and matriarch. I observed First Nations parents use what I began to think conceptually of as the two tools or superpowers, frequent flexible feeds and rich and changing sensory motor nourishment, to keep their little ones dialled down. |
| 1994 | I first qualified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and began to practice breastfeeding medicine in the midst of general practice. The 'epidemic' of reflux or gastro-oesophageal refux disease in infants began in my home city, spread quickly interstate and then internationally. I saw how disrupted parent-infant synchrony in sleep was interpreted through highly medicalised lens. Some years later, the diagnosis of allergy became a very popular lens for making sense of unsettled baby behaviour and sleep problems. |
| 2000 | I first presented an early version of the Possums 5-domain approach to unsettled baby behaviour, including the sleep domain, at the Australasian Society of Lactation Consultants |
| 2011 | I conducted a key stakeholder interview, and analysed qualititative data from a range of health professionals across multiple disciplines about what needed to change in the management of unsettled babies, both in Australia and also internationally. |
| 2011 | I taught health professionals the Possums 5-domain approach to unsettled baby behaviour. An evaluation (unpublished) was funded by the Queensland Centre for Mothers and Babies and conducted by two senior academics from The Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland. NDC or the Possums programs were first delivered to patients in the Brisbane Possums Clinic, and I published an evaluation of parent experience in 2013, funded by the Chris Silagy Research Scholarship, RACGP. |
| 2011-2012 | I founded the Queensland Infant Sleep Association, and we held two conferences, called The Great Baby Sleep Debate. Dr Koa Whittingham, psychologist and researcher, UQ introduced herself to me after I presented an early version of The Possums Sleep Program at the 2011 Great Baby Sleep Debate. |
| 2013 | I published a metanarrative systematic review with Associate Professor Peter Hill demonstrating that sleep training approaches did not decrease frequency of night waking in infancy. |
| 2014 | Dr Whittingham and I published the (retrospectively named) NDC Model of Infant Sleep, known as The Possums Sleep Program, with its underlying theoretical model. Dr Whittingham introduced ACT into The Possums Sleep Program. (The early ACT metaphors used in The Possums Sleep Program have now been superceded.) |
| 2014 | I published The discontented little baby book, which contained the key elements of The Possums Sleep Program. |
| 2015 | Social media activist and psychologist Dr Tracy Cassells blogged a positive review of my book on her site Evolutionary Parenting, which helped raise awareness of The Possums Sleep Program (described in broad strokes in my book) |
| 2016 | Social media activist and educator Carly Grubb published a detailed positive review of The Possums Sleep Program on the parenting website Mamamia, which helped raise awareness of The Possums Sleep Program. |
| 2012-2016 | I collaborated with Dr Koa Whittingham, who integrated Acceptance and Commitment Therapy into The Possums Sleep Program, helped me publish the theoretical frame and clinical translation in Infant Mental Health Journal in 2014, helped me manualise the program into the 2015-2016 Workbook, and contributed to the Possums Sleep Film 2015. Dr Whittingham co-presented the Possums Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Introductory Workshop with me to health professionals 2015-2016. |
| 2015-2016 | I wrote and produced The Possums Sleep Film 2015, with Longbow Productions. Dr Koa Whittingham wrote and presented the Acceptance and 2015-2016 Possums Sleep Workbook. I offered Introductory Workshops to health professionals F2F and online, including teaching The Possums Sleep Program |
| 2017 | Professor Helen Ball from the Durham Infancy and Sleep Centre, UK, visited the Brisbane Possums Clinic on sabbatical, and conducted an evaluation. |
| 2018 | Professor Ball, her team, and myself worked collaboratively on Sleep, Baby & You, an adaption of The Possums Sleep Program for the UK context. I began offering Masterclasses and NDC Accreditation to health professionals, F2F and online |
| 2020 | I developed a new, expanded and revised version of The Possums Baby and Toddler Sleep Program, comprised of videos. I began to use different ACT strategies, out of my various trainings with ACT experts, and in response to parent and health professional feedback. |
| 2024 | I and my small team publish the fully expanded version of The Possums Sleep Program, in which I respond to all questions parents have asked me over the years, integating all the information and approaches that I had been using in the clinic and teaching health professionals over previous years, fully revising the ACT and integrating Compassionate Mind Training, and updating the research. |
You can find out about the elements of The Possums Sleep Program and why they were completely novel in the world of infant sleep support at the time of development here. You can find one example of unethical appropriation of The Possums Sleep Program here.
Recommended resources
About the development of The Possums Baby and Toddler Sleep Program (from 2011 ongoing)
How have the steps of implementation science been used to develop The Possums Sleep Programs?
What is the Neuroprotective Developmental Care Contextual Model of Infant Sleep (NDC-MIS)?