December 6, 2025
Infant Sleep and Maternal Mental Health: Podcast Episode #319
In this insightful episode of Ask the Doulas, we sit down with Jackie Viscusi, an experienced pediatric sleep consultant with Gold Coast Doulas, to explore the intersection of infant sleep and maternal mental health. Jackie shares compassionate, evidence-based guidance on understanding baby sleep patterns, supporting healthy sleep habits, and caring for your own emotional well-being during the postpartum period.
Whether you’re a new parent navigating sleepless nights or a caregiver looking to better support families, this episode offers reassurance, practical tools, and thoughtful conversation designed to help both parents and babies rest easier.
This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount in addition to their Black Friday sales.
Hello, hello! This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am joined by our own Jackie Viscusi. She is a sleep consultant with us for not only infants, but also toddlers. She is a mom of two and a baby and toddler music teacher. Welcome, Jackie!
Hi! Thank you! You say my last name right every time, but I think that you get nervous and hesitate because it is a trickier last name.
I do always feel like I said it wrong! Viscusi. With the topic of baby sleep and maternal mental health, I would love to dive in to the seriousness about how sleep deprivation can affect the mother and the entire family’s mental health.
Yes. It feels like it goes without saying, but I don’t think it’s something that’s talked about enough. I think it’s shamed, like it’s made out to be stigmatized, that maybe you can’t handle that your baby’s not sleeping or in some way it’s indicative of how strong a mother or parent you are. And nothing could be further from the truth. Sleep deprivation absolutely robs the brain of executive functioning, of any sort of functioning, and mood regulation. And on top of hormonal imbalances that are happening, it is very real that you can slip easier into postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, any of those postpartum or perinatal mood disorders much easier when you have sleep deprivation at hand.
Absolutely. And it’s not something, as you mentioned, that it talked about enough. But you’re getting clients, because I handle intakes and see the desperation when they have gone for months or sometimes years with the toddlers without sleep, and you, as a sleep consultant, are their last chance at trying to function like they did before having the baby or babies, for the twin and triplet families that we work with.
Yes. I mean, I think it’s one of those things that’s easy to forget when you’re not in the thick of it, how hard it is. And how hard it is to function, especially for working parents. I mean, all parents are working, but if you’re having to get up for a 9:00 to 5:00, if you’re not getting at least a few hours of solid sleep in, you very well could crash. And I think it’s a struggle because I know we want to do safe sleep. I know we want our babies in their own space in a safe environment, which is in a bassinet right next to the bed. But also there are higher instances of co-sleeping and SIDS because families are so exhausted that they don’t know what else to do, other than to put the baby in with them. And there is a lot that you can do outside of that. It is very, very behavioral, and one of my favorite things is seeing those intake forms and seeing where they started and then seeing where they end up, and they are sleeping, give or take throughout the night – we don’t do anything extreme. It’s not going to be like we jump to cry it out or that you have to stop breastfeeding or feeding at night. Nothing like that. There are so many holistic measures that we can do and behavioral things that we can do that go above and beyond traditional sleep training that can get you and your family sleeping better and feeling better.
Right. And it’s not just overnight sleep. It’s also naps, and as they say, rest when baby is resting, and you don’t need to do all of the cleaning and all of the things. It’s about bonding and recovery, and not only the physical recovery, but the mental recovery. So any time that you can really get a good nap routine in and take advantage of that and also get rest yourself is so important.
Yes. And thank you, because sometimes I forget to mention naps because in my mind it’s so ingrained. Overnight and naps – it’s all connected to me, how they’re sleeping at night with their naps. But yes, we do both. And sometimes people will ask, do you work on naps too, and I’m like oh, my gosh, of course. It’s all a part of it. And prolonged sleep. We track the sleep for days after, and we give feedback and we do check-ins and we make sure that things are running smoothly, and if they’re not, that sleep log helps us be able to course correct it and I’m able to see the data and see the sleep behavior and how the baby is doing, how mom is doing. And those check-ins help us do that, as well. Nighttime sleep is usually what people seek after first, just because they need that relief. But naps follow the next day, and we work on getting all of that better. We work on the schedule first and let the baby align to that schedule, and then we work on sleep behaviors starting the first night and then naps the very next day.
And sometimes there are other family members, say a mother-in-law helping, with daytime or overnight sleep. You may have a nanny, au pair, or an overnight postpartum doula. How does that work in to help with maternal mental health and sleep when you’re having other people care for your child? I have discussions with our postpartum doula clients about wondering if they’re going to be able to fully relax and sleep with someone else in the home.
Yeah. I think it’s building your village to have those other people there, and that can introduce maybe a different way of doing things, especially if it’s like a mother-in-law or an aunt figure. But I think the greatest resources that we have is that we can work together, so we’ll work with a postpartum doula or ideally we’ll have grandma on the call, and we’ll go through the plan together so that everybody is on the same page. And that makes a huge difference because consistency across the board is what’s going to get us there even quicker. The sleep log, also – I can share that with other people, so if they want to be able to input – let’s say mom and dad are at work and grandma has the baby. They can either email me or they can input what the nap looked like that day, and that way, we can have it all logged and stored in one place. And it’s easier for troubleshooting and like I said, maintaining that consistency across the board.
Exactly. And sometimes when you’re so sleep deprived, it’s overwhelming to execute a plan with our sleep consultants, and so having help from even the partner can be so beneficial. But they, as you mentioned, need to be on the same page in order to help you catch up on sleep.
Yeah, because you want to be able to really recharge. And if you’re nervous that maybe someone doesn’t know what the routine is, it’s not going to be as helpful. That’s why I like calling it consulting or even counseling because sleep training, it almost is reductive in what it really means, and that means getting everybody on the same page and on board. And I think with moms, it’s helpful to have someone else to be able to hold everybody accountable gently and lovingly. I’ve been on calls with other family members, and I’ll just gently remind them, or I’m able to look at the log and say, oh, yeah, I notice that we kind of pushed this nap; what was going on here? Okay, let’s try to remember that outside of this window, they might be overtired or overstimulated. So it helps take that pressure off of the mom or the dad because there’s another advocate there for her. There’s another person there that is kind of moving the ship so that she can take some breaks and relax and be able to rest and restore.
Exactly. So important to take breaks and feel like yourself, whatever that self-care is for each individual. It could be stepping out on the balcony and having a cup of tea, or getting on the phone with your friend and talking about anything but motherhood. Whatever it takes to get out of that constant roll of the mother and find a bit of your own joy.
Yeah, and even ten minutes a day. Just setting realistic goals for yourself. I mean, hopefully it’s more than ten minutes a day, but I even mean setting aside ten minutes to do a little bit of at-home yoga. There’s a great resource called Yoga with Adrienna and she does very gentle, restorative yoga, and that really saved me postpartum because she has different ones like yoga for anxiety, yoga for stress, and they’re like 10 minutes, 20 minutes, different times. But that can really helpful. Just make sure your body can move a little bit and make sure you’re not doing anything that would hurt you. But all of her stuff is pretty perinatal-friendly. So just setting that time aside to be able to detach and restore and move is really helpful. That’s also why I started doing music classes for babies and toddlers and moms, because it’s an hour – you’re still there with your little one, but the music classes are also very helpful for the parents, as well, to get out, socialize, be around other moms, sing, listen to music, and be able to just restore some of that stress because we’ve learned that music can help with dopamine. It can help with oxytocin. It can help with serotonin and norepinephrine, which are basically neurochemicals that we need in order to feel good. So things like music and then using music for sleep, having your own restful time to relax. There are studies saying that even just relaxing your body, laying horizontal, being in a restful state, can be almost as restorative as deep REM. So make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. Sleep is going to really help with the neurotransmitters of the brain, like music, and it also with help lessen stress hormones, lessen anxiety, irritability, and it will help your cognitive reasoning, as well.
Absolutely. I did Music Together classes with both of my kids.
That’s what I’m doing!
I loved it so much. As you mentioned, it’s great to interact. I feel like part of the maternal health concerns that I’ve had since the pandemic have been – we have, of course, social media and the internet to connect us, but we’re not connecting in person as much. There are fewer people even attending the postpartum groups and breastfeeding groups, and I found that whether it was going to story time at the library, meeting up with friends from my childbirth class with their babies and walking around a botanical garden – whatever I could to have people who are going through the same thing at the same time around me. That’s what I loved about the music classes, as well. It was a good activity pre-naptime, and I planned it around the schedule for my kids.
Yes, exactly. And the number of times I hear how well the moms’ babies slept after a music class – I mean, I’d be rich if I had a dollar for how many times I heard that. Because there’s so much stimulation; they’re learning so much; they’re taking in so much. It’s so good for their brain and their emotional regulatory system, and same with us. And like you said, just being around other people in person. There is a difference. You do need to be in person, connecting with other people. So keep that in mind, as well. And the other thing about seeking sleep support or any sort of support postpartum is I think it’s easy to turn online and get very overwhelmed. So when you’re googling, you’re going down rabbit holes of sleep. You’re going down reddit threads. You’re going through Facebook groups. And just keep in mind, these are people who have not studied this, have not been trained in it. I mean, some of them might have been, but a lot of them are not. They’re not certified, or they’re influencers. And it’s just a little – it can be a little dodgy and overwhelming. That’s why I think a place like Gold Coast Doulas – these guys know what they’re doing. We all are trained in this. We work together. And it’s just a much more trusted resource. That’s why I do a lot of talking it out. I do check-in calls. I do a lot of talking because not everything can be fixed online or digitally.
Right. And whether it’s our sleep consultants like yourself or postpartum doulas, birth doulas on the team – we are able to give resources to in person and online support groups, to therapists that may specialize in perinatal mood disorders or PTSD, whatever it is that our client is concerned about or whatever they’re going through at that moment. We’re able to give them resources, and that is also important to be able to know that you don’t need to go to that mom group to find trusted, professional experts to support you.
Yep. Exactly.
So how can our listeners work with you through Gold Coast Doulas?
So go on the website, and you can book a free intro call if you want to see what we’re all about and what we’ll be working on with you and your little one’s sleep. We’ll just make sure it’s a good fit. I might ask some questions. You can ask me some questions. We can also look at our different packages that we offer, as well. We’ll do a full consultation, a consultation only, or we’ll do an entire package and that will get you a consultation, follow-up calls, sleep tracking. It’s a lot more cohesive. Unlimited email back and forth. Those are places that you can find me, as well as on Gold Coast Doulas’ Instagram. I’m always trying to add more tips and recommendations there, as well.
Any final tips for our listeners related to infant sleep and maternal mental health?
You don’t have to be quiet about it. You seek the help that you need, and know that sleep is a great first step just because it can give you more of that mental clarity to then see what your next steps should be, such as a therapist, a psychiatrist for medication, just finding support groups locally that you can go to and get out of the rabbit holes online. So just know that you’re not alone, and you deserve to be feeling better.
Exactly. Thank you so much, Jackie, and we will talk soon!
IMPORTANT LINKS
Sleep consultations with Jackie