Hello!
I am Ashika Morgan, Certified Gentle Sleep Coach® since Dec, 2023 and Founder of I AM HELD
As a nanny of 16 years I have been through a lot with my families - celebrating all the milestones, family dinners, illness, divorce, sleep deprivation, even bankruptcy. For some, we even hankered down together through a pandemic! I’ve seen firsthand the struggles parents go through to give their children the best.
My path to becoming a Gentle Sleep Coach® began when I encountered a 13-month-old who seemed immune to my usual tricks for getting babies to sleep and I was at a loss for how to help. I was seeing a recurring pattern among families I worked for, with many babies sleep deteriorating a little after their first birthday and Moms returning to work from mat leave, frustrated that their child was still not sleeping through the night. Many assumed sleeping through the night would’ve happened naturally by then.
Discovering Kim West’s book “Good Night Sleep Tight”, and hearing success stories from sleep coaches was a revelation! It gave me hope that there was a solution, a way I could make a difference.
But frankly, I was also a little bit mad - that parents have been led to accept the suffering around sleep struggles and sleep deprivation as normal. A whole lot of stress, sleepless nights and exhaustion could’ve been avoided had they had the proper education on shaping their child’s sleep habits and developing the skill of putting themselves to sleep.
There’s a lot of conflicting advice on sleep training and it can be confusing for parents to figure out what is fact, what is misinformed opinions and what is right for my child. Surprisingly, even family physicians and paediatricians often lack training in healthy sleep hygiene and sleep training, despite sleep’s essential role in health, growth and development.
Motivated by this, I established “I AM Held” sleep coaching services. I want families to know there is another way. It doesn’t have to be like this. I am on a mission to share knowledge with families and healthcare professionals to ensure everyone gets the restful sleep they need. With a little bit of education, you will have the power to evoke great sleep habits in your child … and they will surprise you with just how much they are capable of when provided with the right support and environment that gently holds them to it.
