Bridging Birth, Postpartum, Lactation & Pediatric Sleep Through 20+ Years of Hands-On Family Support
Meet Marianne Jacobson, Certified Pediatric Sleep Coach, birth and postpartum doula, lactation educator, multiples specialist, founder of Pediatric Sleep Consulting, and graduate of the International Parenting & Health Institute’s Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification Program.
Based in the Greater Seattle/Bellevue area of Washington, Marianne has spent more than two decades supporting families through some of the most transformative, and often exhausting, stages of family life.
Her work doesn’t begin with sleep alone.
It can begin during pregnancy.
Continue through birth.
Follow a family home during the postpartum period.
Include breastfeeding and feeding support.
Address the unique realities of twins and multiples.
And eventually evolve into helping the entire family navigate sleep.
That’s what makes Marianne’s professional background so distinctive.
She doesn’t simply bring sleep education into a consultation.
She brings thousands of hours spent alongside real families, in their homes, overnight, during postpartum recovery and through the everyday realities of caring for newborns and young children.
Today, her practice reports more than 20,000 hours of hands-on experience, with approximately 90% of her clientele consisting of families with twins or multiples.
Discovering Her Calling Through Birth
Marianne’s journey into family support began in 2003, when she encountered a doula for the first time during the birth of her nephew.
The experience stayed with her.
Soon afterward, she enrolled in birth doula training and realized she had discovered work that felt deeply meaningful.
As a birth doula, Marianne supported pregnant women in learning about their birth options and preparing for childbirth, accompanying families through births at homes, birth centers and hospitals.
But birth would become only the beginning of her work with families.
From Birth Doula to Postpartum Support
Marianne soon became interested in postpartum doula care and the opportunity to remain alongside families as they transitioned into life with a newborn.
That work broadened her perspective considerably.
The postpartum period isn’t defined by one issue.
Sleep, feeding, recovery, lactation, household demands, parental wellbeing and the needs of the newborn frequently overlap.
Marianne eventually joined the board of directors of the Northwest Association for Postpartum Support (NAPS), helping support and promote postpartum doula services throughout the Greater Seattle area.
Her professional education has also included postpartum doula training through Seattle Midwifery School, advanced breastfeeding education, postpartum depression education and extensive continuing education related to birth and postpartum care.
That comprehensive postpartum foundation would eventually shape the way Marianne approached sleep.
Developing an Extraordinary Specialty in Twins & Multiples
One of the most distinctive chapters of Marianne’s career happened organically.
As her postpartum practice developed, an unusually high percentage of the families seeking her support were raising twins and multiples.
Today, Marianne reports that approximately 90% of her clientele have multiples.
Working with multiples brings its own set of practical challenges.
Parents may be simultaneously navigating feeding, breastfeeding, sleep, routines, recovery and the logistics of caring for more than one newborn.
Marianne’s multiples services therefore extend beyond sleep alone. She helps families think through feeding and sleeping rhythms, newborn care, overnight support, supplies and flexible routines that consider the needs of both the babies and their parents.
It was this intensive work with postpartum families, particularly families of multiples, that ultimately encouraged Marianne to pursue additional education in both lactation and sleep.
When Doula Care & Sleep Support Came Together
Sleep eventually became a central component of Marianne’s work.
Her LinkedIn identifies her as a Certified Pediatric Sleep Coach, Postpartum Doula and Birth Doula, while her practice describes her professional identity as a Seattle Sleep Doula.
That combination is significant.
Marianne describes herself as a sleep coach who also brings the knowledge, background and experience of a doula. Her doula experience allows her to consider sleep alongside the realities surrounding it, including feeding, postpartum adjustment and family dynamics.
As Marianne explains through her professional philosophy, sleeping, feeding and daily habits influence one another.
Rather than viewing sleep in isolation, her varied professional experience allows her to approach each family from multiple perspectives.
Continuing Her Professional Education With IPHI
As Marianne’s work expanded into pediatric sleep, she continued building her professional education.
Her current website lists her certification as a Maternity and Child Sleep Consultant through the International Maternity Institute, the original name under which the International Parenting & Health Institute’s sleep education was established.
Today, we recognize Marianne as a graduate of IPHI’s Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification Program.
Her professional development didn’t stop there.
Marianne’s training history also includes specialized education in areas such as medical conditions and sleep apnea in children, secure attachment, sensory processing, breastfeeding, postpartum care and gentle sleep coaching.
That continuing education reflects a theme present throughout her career:
Keep learning so you can better understand the families you’re supporting.
More Than 20,000 Hours of Hands-On Experience
There’s professional knowledge that comes from education.
And then there’s knowledge that develops through thousands of hours spent working directly with families.
Marianne has both.
Pediatric Sleep Consulting reports that she has accumulated more than 20,000 hours of experience supporting families through in-home and overnight services.
Her website also documents 2,555 nights in client homes among her professional experience.
Those numbers help illustrate just how hands-on Marianne’s career has been.
She hasn’t spent two decades exclusively advising families from a distance.
Her work has included being physically present during births, helping families after they arrive home, providing overnight support, assisting with feeding and lactation, caring for multiples and working directly with families as they navigate sleep.
That experience has shaped a practice built around something simple:
Every family is different.
“Your Experience, Your Way”
Marianne’s services are built around the principle “Your Experience, Your Way.”
She acknowledges that every family brings its own desires, expectations, background, fears, goals and circumstances.
Her role isn’t to make every family do exactly the same thing.
It’s to understand what that particular family needs and determine how much support they want—from simply pointing them in the right direction to walking alongside them through the process.
Her sleep coaching follows the same individualized philosophy.
Rather than relying exclusively on one predetermined method, Marianne develops customized, step-by-step sleep plans and offers collaborative support, education, in-home assistance and follow-up. Her website specifically notes that families who have tried cry-it-out or other approaches unsuccessfully can work with her to identify an alternative suited to their circumstances.
Supporting the Entire Transition Into Parenthood
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Marianne’s career is the continuity of her work.
Many professionals meet a family at one specific point.
Marianne can potentially support them across an entire transition:
Pregnancy → Birth → Postpartum → Breastfeeding & Feeding → Newborn Care → Sleep → Early Childhood
Her birth doula services include prenatal preparation, labor support and postpartum breastfeeding follow-up. Her postpartum work helps families adapt after bringing their babies home. Her lactation education addresses feeding challenges. Her multiples specialization helps parents navigate the practical realities of caring for two or more babies. And her pediatric sleep work helps families establish sleep patterns that fit their individual needs.
It’s a continuum of care rather than a collection of disconnected services.
A Mother Supporting Other Parents
Marianne’s understanding of family life is also personal.
A Seattle native who later lived and worked on the Eastside, Marianne is a mother herself. Her website describes the experience of raising her children and the joy she continues to feel when former clients reconnect years later and share how their children are doing.
She describes one of the greatest honors of being a sleep doula as witnessing new parents gradually grow into confident families.
That sentiment captures what has remained at the heart of her work throughout the years.
Not simply changing sleep.
Supporting families as they become families.
Professional Profile
Marianne Jacobson
Certified Pediatric Sleep Coach | Birth & Postpartum Doula | Lactation Educator
Location: Greater Seattle/Bellevue, Washington, USA
Practice: Pediatric Sleep Consulting / Seattle Sleep Doula
IPHI Certification
Holistic Pregnancy & Child Sleep Consultant Certification Program
Originally completed through the International Maternity Institute, now the International Parenting & Health Institute.
Professional Experience
20+ Years Supporting Families
20,000+ Hours of Hands-On Experience
2,555 Nights in Client Homes
Birth Doula
Postpartum Doula
Pediatric Sleep Coach
Lactation Educator
Twins & Multiples Specialist
Advanced Professional Education
Gentle Sleep Coaching
Childhood Medical Conditions & Sleep Apnea
Secure Attachment
Sensory Processing
Postpartum Doula Care
Postpartum Depression
Labor Support
Advanced Breastfeeding Education
Areas of Expertise
Infant & Child Sleep
Twins & Multiples
Postpartum Support
Birth Support
Lactation Education
Feeding & Sleep
Overnight Family Support
Individualized Sleep Coaching
An Inspiration in Continuity of Family Support
Marianne’s career demonstrates what happens when sleep support is informed by the realities surrounding sleep.
For more than two decades, she has stood beside families during birth, entered their homes during the postpartum period, stayed overnight when exhausted parents needed support, helped mothers navigate feeding, developed extensive experience with twins and multiples, and helped families work through pediatric sleep challenges.
Along the way, she continued learning.
She became a doula.
A postpartum professional.
A lactation educator.
A sleep coach.
An IPHI graduate.
And eventually one of the rare professionals able to bring all of those perspectives together.
Her career reminds us that supporting sleep doesn’t always begin at bedtime.
Sometimes it begins by understanding the entire family.
💙 Congratulations, Marianne!
We are proud to recognize your decades of dedication to children and families and celebrate the extraordinary hands-on experience you bring to the International Parenting & Health Institute’s global graduate community.
