Sleepless Nights, Stronger Days: An Interview with Cry-sis on Supporting Exhausted Parents

At Cloud and Cuckoo, we believe in honesty, community and connection especially when parenting feels overwhelming. We’re proud to be partnering with Cry-sis, the UK’s only charity dedicated to supporting parents with crying and sleepless babies. The charity offer a free helpline every day of the year. All of us at Cloud and Cuckoo are mums and know too well that feeling of overwhelming exhaustion. We all wished we had heard of Cry-sis back when our children were babies.

We sat down with Marie, Administrator and Volunteer Coordinator at Cry-sis to talk about the emotional toll of early parenthood and why being heard can be life-changing.

Thanks so much for speaking with us Marie. For anyone that might be unfamiliar, what is Cry-sis and what do you do?

We are a national charity set up by parents, to support parents and carers who are trying to cope with managing long periods of crying or sleep problems in babies and young children.

We offer a free helpline every day of the year. Our trained volunteers have all had experience with these issues and understand how it feels to be going through this stage of parenting. We offer an opportunity for parents to speak in confidence about anything they may be struggling with and we offer advice, non-judgemental support and reassurance.

We also signpost callers to other sources of help if anything outside our remit arises.

We’re huge believers in breaking the “perfect parent” myth. What do you wish more people knew about this phase of parenting?

Don’t be tempted in to setting impossibly high standards for yourself, as a parent.

The fact you’re there showing love and caring for your baby is all they need. The crying in the early weeks is not your fault, you are not doing anything wrong, if baby doesn’t always settle. It often just takes time for this phase to ease.

Sleep problems in older babies occur for many reasons, don’t feel it’s necessarily down to anything you have done or not done.

What types of calls does Cry-sis typically receive?

A high number of calls are from parents with a baby under 4 months as this is a time colicky crying can be at its height. Tiredness is an important issue when trying to cope at this stage.

We also hear from parents of older babies and toddlers who perhaps have ongoing sleep problems, or sometimes sleep has become disrupted for a reason and help is needed to get things back on track.

Some parents call because they just need another adult to chat with on a stressful day and prefer to talk with someone confidentially.

A single call can cover several issues, that parents may need help with.

Has the landscape changed over the years? Are parents facing different challenges now?

Yes, it’s changed a lot. Our calls initially, were mainly from mums but now our calls are probably divided equally between mums and dads.

During Covid many parents were working from home and for some, this is still the norm. This can cause added pressure for one parent, trying to work with crying in the back ground and stress for the other parent, who is trying to find ways to soothe baby, so they’re not disturbed.

Local services that parents would have used frequently a few years ago, are now stretched to the limit and it’s difficult in some areas for them to access support on baby issues and at times their own health and wellbeing. Parents are feeling isolated and are not sure where to go for help.  Our call numbers continue to increase.

We changed to a free helpline recently as we realised some callers may be in a difficult financial situation and can’t afford to pay for support. We want all parents to be able to speak to someone whatever their situation, this of course comes at a cost to us.

So let's talk about your volunteers, being one yourself Marie. Tell us, how do people get involved?

There are many ways to help. If you have experience of a crying baby, we always need helpline Volunteer Listeners or if you have specific skills, committee work might appeal to you. Do please contact me if you’d like to know more about volunteering info@cry-sis.org.uk.

We also need people who can raise money to keep our helpline running. So, if you do sponsored walks, buggy pushes, or hold fundraising bake sales or coffee mornings, these are all ways to help and you would be benefiting our cause and helping other parents at a difficult time.

What does the partnership with Cloud and Cuckoo mean to you?

It means a great deal that you have partnered with us.

You clearly understand what we are trying to achieve by supporting families. By sharing our information and supporting us with fundraising, it means more parents will hear about our charity, and we can continue to be there for them, when other services are not available.

And finally, what’s one thing you’d say to a parent reading this who might be struggling?

Don’t feel you need to cope alone. Please pick up the phone and call our helpline, we will do our best to support you in a way that suits you as a family.

Cloud and Cuckoo will be donating a portion of sales as well as running an ongoing fundraiser for Cry-sis which is accessible over on our instagram. You can also support the charity directly www.cry-sis.org.uk. 

Spread the word by sharing their helpline … because no one should feel alone with an unsettled baby.