She's known as the baby whisperer, and she's helped hundreds of babies – some of them famous – go to sleep.
Now Dorothy Waide has put her knowledge down on paper.
Ms Waide was desperate to have children of her own, but it never happened.
So she's dedicated her life to helping other mums and their bubs around the world.
Her knowledge, her results, have earned the south Auckland baby nurse the nickname The Baby Whisperer.
First tip – Don't do anything in your arms you can't do in a cot.
Now she's now longer just whispering, but writing too.
"My book is You Simply Can't Spoil a Newborn. And yes you can hold a baby without spoiling it; you can hold a baby without making a rod for your own back; you can hold a baby without your baby manipulating you. Babies are little people. They can't manipulate, but you are there to respond to them, so my book is about being a parent. You are the baby whisperer, you are the baby's expert, and it's about giving you the information about how to make it easy."
She started the book seven years ago.
"It's been a long, drawn-out process, and yes it's changed many times. And yes I do hope it's a bible. I hope people are going to embrace it and look at it on a way to nurture a newborn baby."
So how does a woman who's never been a mum know so much about raising babies and have that magic baby touch?
"A lot of people say, 'But she's not a mother. She hasn't birthed a baby.' Now, what I say to a group of women is we have all had sex; the only difference is you have carried a baby, you've birthed a baby, and you have breastfed."
She's whispered to the babies of the rich and famous. Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas wrote the book's foreword and say they never found a baby-related problem, Ms Waide couldn't solve.
But we can't even whisper what those problems were – confidentiality rules.
Her book will be delivered next month.
3 News
source: newshub archive
