Hi, I’m Lara
I’m an anthropologist, a mum of two, and the person behind The 3AM Newborn Guide.
I have a PhD in anthropology, with research focused on the lived experience of doctors training in Australia. Before having my second baby, I worked in medical workforce reform and medical education.
That background means I have spent a lot of time thinking about how people make sense of complex systems, how professional knowledge gets translated into everyday practice, and what happens when rules meet actual human lives.
Then I became a mother, and found myself doing exactly what so many new parents do: awake at 3am, trying to work out whether my baby was doing something normal, whether I was missing something important, and whether the internet was helping or making me more anxious.
Why I made The 3AM Newborn Guide
My two babies were very different from each other. Both of them made it obvious very quickly that babies do not behave like neat little flowcharts.
They fed differently. Slept differently. Settled differently. Needed different things.
What I found most frustrating as a new mother was how often perfectly reasonable variation was presented as something to fix. There were rules about how long a baby should feed, how often they should sleep, whether they should feed to sleep, how long they should stay awake, whether they should burp, whether they were creating “bad habits”, and approximately seventeen thousand other things to worry about before breakfast.
Reliable information absolutely matters. So does context.
The 3AM Newborn Guide exists to help parents tell the difference between the things that genuinely matter for health and safety, the things that are simply normal newborn variation, and the things that are mostly parenting noise.
What I bring to this
An anthropologist’s perspective.
I am interested in how rules, expertise and cultural expectations shape the way we understand ourselves and our babies. I pay particular attention to the gap between what guidance says in theory and what family life actually looks like at 3am.
Experience working around healthcare and medical education.
My professional background was in medical workforce policy, reform and education. I am used to reading health information carefully, distinguishing evidence from assumption, and being precise about the limits of what a source actually says.
Lived experience as a mother.
I have breastfed, paced the floor at ridiculous hours, Googled things I already knew the answer to, worried unnecessarily, worried appropriately, and discovered that the same strategy can work beautifully for one baby and be completely useless for another.
None of that makes me a doctor, midwife, nurse or lactation consultant.
What this site is, and what it isn’t
The 3AM Newborn Guide and the free articles on this site provide general educational information.
They are designed to help parents understand newborn feeding, sleep, behaviour and safety, and to make reliable information easier to use when they are exhausted.
The content is referenced to reputable sources, with Australian guidance used where appropriate. Sources are listed so you can check them yourself.
The guide has not been clinically reviewed, and nothing on this site can assess your baby or replace personalised advice from your own health professionals.
When something belongs with a midwife, child and family health nurse, lactation consultant, GP or emergency service, I will say so.
The basic philosophy
Babies vary enormously.
Good information should help you understand the baby in front of you, rather than leave you feeling as though you have failed a test because they did not follow a schedule.
Safety matters. Evidence matters. Your observations matter too.
And at 3am, sometimes what you need most is a clear answer and permission to stop Googling.
Questions about any of this? Use the support page.