{"id":954201,"date":"2026-05-12T06:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954201\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:04:14","slug":"calls-for-urgent-action-on-baby-sleep-industry-after-bbc-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954201\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for ‘urgent action’ on baby-sleep industry after BBC investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It just felt like she needed to be stopped and there’s nothing out there to report her behaviour to,” she says.<\/p>\n

Emily says the “vulnerability” of new parents using these types of services “is the main reason why there needs to be regulation”.<\/p>\n

NHS midwife and certified lactation consultant Olivia Hinge, who reviewed our undercover consultations with self-described sleep experts, says she understands why people offering support with sleep can be so appealing to new mums.<\/p>\n

“What they’re doing is what you often don’t get on the NHS… somebody sitting and listening and talking about the feeding alongside the sleeping,” Hinge says – “it feels like somebody’s really taking the time to know them and their baby”.<\/p>\n

But she cautions that the gap in support for new parents shouldn’t be filled by unsafe advice or by people working outside of their qualifications and expertise.<\/p>\n

“Children are the most vulnerable people in our society and we have a duty to protect them… We need some form of regulation and consistent public health messages have to be upheld,” Hinge adds.<\/p>\n

In the letter to Streeting, Morrison also highlights the case of Genevieve Meehan, a nine-month-old baby who suffocated at her nursery after being tightly swaddled, strapped to a beanbag and left unattended for 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

Her parents, Katie Wheeler and John Meehan, launched Campaign for Gigi to push for stronger safeguards in early years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month the Department for Education published updated safer-sleep guidance for early-years providers in partnership with The Lullaby Trust.<\/p>\n

From September 2026, this will become statutory thanks to Wheeler and Meehan’s campaigning.<\/p>\n

But the Cheadle MP said it was “a time-critical mission to step in and regulate” the issue of safer-sleep advice.<\/p>\n

“Although the government is cracking down on the improper use of the title nurse, it’ll do absolutely nothing if someone can just change their title to ‘sleep consultant’ and continue giving bogus advice the next day,” Morrison said.<\/p>\n

“It terrifies me, as a father of a young one myself, that people are out there claiming to be experts when they are not.”<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Wes Streeting added: “It should go without saying, that when someone calls themself a nurse, they actually are one. <\/p>\n

“We are taking decisive action to crack down on unqualified individuals masquerading as professionals, making it a criminal offence to misuse the title ‘nurse’.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“It just felt like she needed to be stopped and there’s nothing out there to report her behaviour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-954201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116560099533859006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}