Trusting Your Own Intuition (feat. Kelly Yefet) | #29
Spoil Your Baby
Your intuition as a mother is to care for your child… and it’s OK to trust it. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum sits down with Kelly Yefet, a mother, keynote speaker, brand and growth advisor, entrepreneur, and Greer’s sister-in-law. Greer and Kelly have known each other for many years, and even while personally knowing and understanding the science behind co-sleeping, many people in Kelly’s circle were encouraging her to follow a more modern sleep training approach with her newborn daughter, Noah. It wasn’t until Noah was actually born that...
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Herbs Aren’t Scary, They’re a Lifeline with Sara Chana Silverstein | #28
Spoil Your Baby
On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined by master herbalist, certified lactation consultant, doula, and mother of seven, Sara Chana Silverstein. With over 45,000 mothers and babies supported through lactation, Sara Chana brings a wealth of clinical wisdom and heart-centered, holistic care to the table. Together, they explore the benefits of mixing conventional medicine with herbs, and unravel one of the biggest misconceptions in modern motherhood: that herbs are “unregulated” or unsafe. In truth, when used accurately, these ancient plant allies...
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Feeding Your Baby’s Brain (feat. Dr. Marion Van Horn) | #27
Spoil Your Baby
Brain health matters… and it’s worth prioritizing with your children. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum sits down with Marion Van Horn, PhD. Marion is a neuroscientist and a mom whose work took on a whole new meaning when it started to overlap with her everyday life. As she began to understand more about how babies’ minds grow and develop, it reshaped the way she thought about parenting. That journey led Marion to team up with an illustrator to create something special: a series of coloring books about the brain, designed to bring children and...
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Your Baby’s Growth through Stress: w/ Dr. Rocio Zunini | #26
Spoil Your Baby
The world will be stressful for your child. That’s why they need you as a safe haven. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined once again by co-host Rocio Zunini, Ph.D., a neuroscientist, parental brain educator, and expert on the connection between your body and your baby. There’s a common piece of advice in the parenting world that can be so harmful, we felt it needed an entire episode: Some people will tell you that because the world is harsh, we need to be harsh with our babies to prepare them for what’s to come. This advice is not just...
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Sleep Training: Strength or Disconnection? w/ Dr. Rocio Zunini | #25
Spoil Your Baby
There’s a common message you’ll hear in parenting circles. It sounds empowering on the surface, but actually? It reinforces deep disconnection to your child. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined for another great conversation with co-host Rocio Zunini, PhD. Together, they take a deep dive into a common (yet infuriating!) sentiment floating around social media that questions whether moms who resist sleep training are simply too “lazy” to do the hard work. This is not JUST a bad take. It is a harmful myth rooted in outdated science and...
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Your Breathing is Your Baby’s Breathing w/ Dr. Rocio Zunini | #24
Spoil Your Baby
You might think you know how to breathe. But if you’re not doing it intentionally, there’s a good chance you don’t. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined by Rocio Zunini, Ph.D, a neuroscientist, parental brain educator, and expert on the connection between your breath, your body, and your baby. This is one of our most practical episodes yet. Dr. Rocio walks us through a simple breathing exercise you can use anywhere to reduce stress and regulate your nervous system. As a parent, your stress level affects everything. It shapes your brain, it...
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How to Spoil Your Baby in the Bath with Sue-Rose Reed | #23
Spoil Your Baby
The transition from bath to sleep matters more than you think… but it doesn’t have to be hard. On today’s episode of the Spoil Your Baby podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined by Sue-Rose Reed, founder of Oneberrie, a company that has reimagined bath towels to simplify the transition into and out of your baby’s bath. Spoiling your baby is about creating opportunities for closeness in ways that draw you together. Paying deep attention to the bathtime routine isn’t just about hygiene. It’s about improving the entire bedtime and sleep experience. When you prioritize the process, you...
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Reconnecting to Your Instincts with Brittany Chambers | #22
Spoil Your Baby
Fighting Societal Sleep Norms Isn’t Easy. But That’s what makes it so special. On today’s episode of the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined for a conversation with Sleep Specialist and Neuroscience Practitioner, Brittany Chambers. Brittany’s “Good Night Moon Child” program combines Modern Science with Ancient Wisdom surrounding Natural Infant Sleep. For Brittany, Sleep Sharing was instinctual. When she gave birth to her daughter, regardless of what she was told by the caregivers in the hospital… She wanted to have her daughter share sleep...
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Loss, Love & Epigenetics: How Nurture Rewrites Our Parenting Journey with Emily Getz | #21
Spoil Your Baby
In this powerful and deeply personal episode of Spoil Your Baby, host Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum welcomes Emily Getz—Certified Fertility, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Coach—for a vulnerable and science-rooted conversation on what it means to parent through and after loss, fertility treatment, and donor conception. Emily shares her story with raw honesty: the emotional weight of navigating fertility trauma, the complexities of carrying a baby not genetically connected to her, and the deep healing work that began even before her baby was born. Greer brings insight from her neuroscience expertise,...
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How Babies Sleep (feat. Dr. Helen Ball) | #20
Spoil Your Baby
Shared Sleep is Done by All Other Mammals… So why don’t we do it as humans? On today’s episode of the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined for a one-of-a-kind conversation with Professor, Anthropologist, and Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Center, Dr. Helen Ball. Together they celebrate the launch of Dr. Helen’s BRAND NEW BOOK, “How Babies Sleep: A Science Based Guide to the First 365 Days and Nights”. You don’t have to be familiar with her work to quickly notice… Dr. Helen Ball is incredibly impressive. She has spent years as...
info_outlineShared Sleep is Done by All Other Mammals… So why don’t we do it as humans?
On today’s episode of the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is joined for a one-of-a-kind conversation with Professor, Anthropologist, and Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Center, Dr. Helen Ball. Together they celebrate the launch of Dr. Helen’s BRAND NEW BOOK, “How Babies Sleep: A Science Based Guide to the First 365 Days and Nights”.
You don’t have to be familiar with her work to quickly notice… Dr. Helen Ball is incredibly impressive. She has spent years as an Anthropologist studying human behavior, and studying the behavior of mammals, and her research brings to light a lot of questions about the way that we think babies should sleep– particularly in Anglophone (English Speaking) countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, and others.
Mammals– with the stark exception of humans– generally sleep with their babies. It makes sense! Mammal babies need that safety because we don’t create nests, and because the process of creating milk requires frequent attention. Throughout her incredible and enlightening conversation with Greer, it becomes so apparent that our cultural mindset surrounding shared sleep is very skewed– not just from an anthropological standpoint, but also beneficially.
Regardless of your struggles as a parent, one thing that is absolutely true: by listening to the “Spoil Your Baby” Podcast, you’re already choosing to improve yourself, to create space, and to grow as a parent. If you’ve found value in this conversation, be sure to pass along the episode to a friend! And to learn more about Dr. Helen’s incredible research on the Sleep of Babies, be sure to buy her BRAND NEW book by clicking here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Babies-Sleep-Science-Based-Nights/dp/0306834634/ & gain more free resources by visiting https://www.basisonline.org.uk/
Key Takeaways:
- More People Have Taken Part in Bedsharing, Culturally, Than Many Had Initially Realized
- In Western Society We Often Downplay What it is that Babies Expect
- Every Other Mammal Has The Mothers Sharing Sleep With Their Babies… It Makes Sense that we Should Do the Same
- Human Babies Evolved in the Context of Human Milk
- More Sleep as Babies is spent in REM Sleep Than Any Other Point in Our Lives
- The Biggest Fear for Parents Around Bed Sharing is BreastFeeding
- Every Family Needs to Know How to Bedshare, whether they are Planning to Or Not
- “Sleep Pressure” is an Essential Concept to Grasp & Can Alleviate a lot of Frustration
More on Dr. Helen Ball:
- Dr. Helen’s BRAND NEW Book: “How Babies Sleep”: https://www.amazon.com/How-Babies-Sleep-Science-Based-Nights/dp/0306834634/
- “BASIS” Official Website: https://www.basisonline.org.uk/
- Durham Infancy & Sleep Center: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/durham-infancy-sleep-centre/
- Professor Profile: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/h-l-ball/
- LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/helenlball
Ready to Connect with Greer?:
- “Nurture Neuroscience” Website: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgreerkirshenbaum/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greerkirshenbaum/
- FREE GUIDE, “Nurture Your Baby’s Stress: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/nurture-your-babys-stress
- FREE GUIDE, “Manage the Stressors & Triggers of Parenting”: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/manage-the-stressors-of-parenting
- Order “The Nurture Revolution” Book: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/the-nurture-revolution