From Baby Sleep to the Teen Years: Supporting Healthy Sleep Through Every Stage of Childhood
Meet Ania Rae-Frac, founder of We Love Sleeping Babies, holistic pregnancy and child sleep specialist, Advanced Sensitive Child Sleep Consultant, and graduate of two International Parenting & Health Institute certification programs: Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant and Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach.
Based in Fremantle, Western Australia, Ania has built her work around a fundamental belief: sleep is not simply about changing a child’s behavior.
It is about understanding the child, and the family, as a whole.
Her approach considers factors such as nutrition, environment, development, social and emotional well-being, family dynamics, and the parent-child relationship, while helping families work toward healthier sleep without losing sight of connection.
Today, her completion of IPHI’s Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach Certification expands that perspective even further, creating a continuum of education that extends from pregnancy and infancy through childhood and adolescence.
A Personal Experience That Changed Her Direction
Ania’s professional journey began with her own experience as a mother.
When her first son, Oscar, struggled with sleep, Ania describes experiencing anxiety and sleepless nights herself. She waited more than a year before seeking professional help.
When she eventually did, she was presented with sleep-training methods that proved extremely difficult for both her and her baby.
Ania recalls feeling unsettled by the experience and becoming convinced that there had to be another way.
That question would eventually change the direction of her professional life.
Rather than viewing sleep solely through the lens of behavior, Ania began exploring the many factors that can influence the body’s natural sleep rhythms.
Her personal search for answers ultimately sparked a passion for sleep and We Love Sleeping Babies was born.
Looking for the Why Behind Sleep
At the heart of Ania’s philosophy is curiosity about what may be contributing to a sleep challenge.
Her website discusses factors including nutrition, environment, development, and social and emotional influences and describes identifying underlying contributors as an important part of helping families improve sleep.
This moves the conversation beyond:
“How do we make this child sleep?”
and toward:
“What might this child and family need in order for healthier sleep to become possible?”
That distinction is central to holistic sleep support.
Sleep exists within a larger system that can include biology, development, emotional well-being, relationships, environment, lifestyle, nutrition, health, and family circumstances.
Understanding that larger picture allows support to become more individualized.
Protecting Connection While Supporting Sleep
Another defining element of Ania’s philosophy is her commitment to the parent-child relationship.
She believes families can make meaningful changes to sleep while continuing to nurture a healthy attachment between parent and child. Her current practice emphasizes a team-led approach that considers each family’s individual needs and uses gentle, evidence-informed strategies.
That philosophy also appears repeatedly in feedback from families.
Parents describe feeling heard rather than pressured, receiving advice tailored to their particular circumstances, and being supported through approaches they experienced as gentle and practical.
For Ania, improving sleep is not about applying the same method to every family.
It is about finding an approach that makes sense for the individual child and the people caring for them.
Building a Foundation in Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep
Ania completed the International Parenting & Health Institute’s Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification, which her professional website identifies as her Diploma in Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep.
She also holds an Advanced Sensitive Child Sleep Consultant qualification.
Together with her lived experience as a mother, this education helped shape the work she developed through We Love Sleeping Babies.
Her practice has supported families with pregnancy and newborn sleep, infant and toddler sleep, feeding and sleeping patterns, sleep environments, family dynamics, and individualized sleep goals.
Growing Beyond the Early Years
But childhood does not end at age five and neither do sleep challenges.
Ania’s completion of IPHI’s Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach Certification Program represents an important next chapter in her professional development.
As children grow, the factors influencing sleep evolve.
School demands, changing circadian rhythms, puberty and hormones, technology, emotional well-being, peer relationships, family dynamics, physical activity, nutrition, stress, and increasing independence can all become relevant pieces of the sleep picture.
This expanded education allows Ania to carry her whole-child philosophy beyond babies and young children and into the increasingly complex developmental stages of later childhood and adolescence.
From Pregnancy Through Adolescence
What makes Ania’s educational journey particularly meaningful is its continuity.
She now brings IPHI education spanning:
Pregnancy → Newborns → Infancy → Early Childhood → School-Age Children → Adolescence
The child changes.
The family changes.
The sleep challenges change.
But the importance of looking beyond sleep itself remains.
That broader perspective can help professionals recognize when a sleep challenge may involve something beyond routine or behavior—and when another qualified healthcare or mental-health professional should become part of the support team.
We Love Sleeping Babies
Through We Love Sleeping Babies, Ania has created a practice centered on educating and empowering parents.
Her current website describes a team-led philosophy in which the unique needs of each family are considered while supporting sleep with gentle, evidence-informed approaches. She emphasizes that sleep is important not only for the child but for the whole family.
That whole-family perspective brings Ania’s journey full circle.
She entered this work because she remembers what it was like to be the exhausted mother searching for another way.
Today, she can be the professional helping another family discover that sleep support does not have to mean abandoning their values, their instincts, or the connection they share with their child.
Graduate Profile
Name: Ania Rae-Frac
Location: Fremantle, Western Australia
Business: Founder, We Love Sleeping Babies
Professional Credentials:
Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant
Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach
Advanced Sensitive Child Sleep Consultant
IPHI Certifications:
Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification
Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach Certification
Areas of Expertise:
Pregnancy & Newborn Sleep • Infant Sleep • Child Sleep • Teen Sleep • Holistic Sleep • Sensitive Sleep Support • Attachment-Conscious Support • Family Sleep • Development • Sleep Environment • Family Dynamics • Whole-Child Wellness
Professional Focus:
Gentle, individualized sleep support that considers the whole child and family while protecting connection and supporting healthy sleep.
Business: We Love Sleeping Babies
Website: We Love Sleeping Babies
Congratulations, Ania!
The International Parenting & Health Institute is proud to recognize Ania Rae-Frac as a graduate of both the Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification Program and the Holistic Children & Teen Sleep Coach Certification Program.
Ania’s professional journey reflects something deeply important in holistic sleep work: children continue to grow, families continue to evolve, and the way we understand and support sleep must evolve with them.
From her beginnings as a mother searching for an alternative to approaches that did not feel right for her family, Ania has transformed that experience into meaningful professional work supporting other parents.
Her continued education now allows her to bring that holistic lens across an even greater developmental continuum, from pregnancy and infancy through childhood and the teenage years.
Congratulations, Ania! We are proud to have you as part of IPHI’s global graduate community.
