Parents facing breastfeeding and infant care challenges often struggle with conflicting advice, and many health providers report feeling unequipped to effectively handle common presentations. The Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC) programs offer new, effective ways to understand and respond to most of the common early-years challenges while avoiding unnecessary diagnoses and treatments. They are built using implementation science, applying robust scientific lenses and a comprehensive, interdisciplinary evidence base. Multiple university-led evaluations demonstrate improved job satisfaction after our courses, while families worldwide increasingly seek out NDC.
Jump to course info forRegistered Health Professionalsor Providers and Educators
Built from Dr Pamela Douglas' 30+ peer-reviewed research papers. Shown to improve outcomes in 10 independent university-led evaluations so far. 1,000+ professionals trained since The NDC Institute opened in 2023; thousands since Possums began in 2011.
NDC (or the Possums programs) is not any single "technique", but a way of interpreting breastfeeding medicine and interdisciplinary early-life research and translating it into clinical practice. Most infant care advice typically overlooks the way the domains of breastfeeding (or feeds), unsettled infant behaviour, and perinatal mental health continuously interact and affect each other. NDC reads the evidence across multiple fields of research through three lenses simultaneously: evolutionary biology, complexity science, and transdisciplinary generalist practice.
NDC has pioneered multiple innovations, including most recently that of evolutionary bodywork. Each domain of NDC builds on the latest research in breastfeeding and lactation medicine, at the same time integrating emerging fields, such as circadian medicine and mechanobiology. NDC uses best-practice implementation science to translate the research into clinical care, refining clinical and education programs as new evidence emerges and effectiveness is studied.
The NDC framework has been laid out across Dr Pamela Douglas’ 30+ peer-reviewed research papers, and positive outcomes of the approach have been shown in 10 independent university-led evaluations so far.
Antenatal preparation for early parenting
Breastfeeding and lactation medicine
Infant and toddler sleep
Cry-fuss and unsettled infant presentations
Perinatal and parental mental health and emotional wellbeing
Infant sensory motor development
Bottle feeding
Introducing solids and supporting an infant's positive relationship with food
Health professionals reported: improvements in knowledge on infant sleep regulation, the mother–infant relationship and ACT; improvements in health professionals' own sleep quality; improvements in psychological flexibility; and a reduction in professional burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
For Registered Health Professionals
The only professional qualification that trains registered health practitioners to deliver Neuroprotective Developmental Care in everyday clinical practice and earn the title NDC Accredited. Completed flexibly online.
The two NDC Masterclasses teach you clinical tools for prevention or management of breastfeeding and lactation difficulties, infant cry-fuss presentations, infant and toddler sleep challenges, and for the support of perinatal mental health. The Masterclasses are prerequisites for NDC Accreditation, and can also be completed as standalone courses.
12hr Online Course
Masterclasses in the Unsettled Infant, Sleep, and Perinatal + Infant Mental Health
12hr Online Course
Masterclasses in Breastfeeding Medicine: Clinical Assessment and Management
12hr Online Course
Masterclasses in the Unsettled Infant, Sleep, and Perinatal + Infant Mental Health
12hr Online Course
Masterclasses in Breastfeeding Medicine: Clinical Assessment and Management
IBLCE
One CERP can be self-logged with IBLCE for every 60 minutes of education
Clinicians upskill in NDC for increased effectiveness as they work with parents and babies, and for increased job satisfaction. These benefits come with (and support) that.
Access to the NDC Resource Hub (parent handouts, clinical guidelines, clinical tools, research, recorded clinical demonstrations and more)
Listing on our "Find an NDC Practitioner" page (once NDC Accredited)
Use of the NDC Accredited name and logo (once NDC Accredited)
Access to peer support network of NDC-trained clinicians
Live Network Hours, Q&A sessions, and clinical demonstrations, currently with Dr Pamela Douglas
Complimentary access to all Guest Speaker Program events
Complimentary access to all The Possums Parent Programs
A 50% off referral code for your patients to access The Possums Parent Programs (once NDC Accredited)
For Providers and Educators
If your work supports families but sits outside the category of registered health professional, this pathway is designed for you. Completed flexibly online.
~20hr Online Course
NDC for Providers + Educators
Learn the fundamentals of NDC for your work with families: evidence-based approaches to infant sleep, cry-fuss behaviour, breastfeeding support and parent wellbeing, within your scope of practice. The families you support will receive effective, research-based guidance, helping prevent and resolve problems while supporting infant sensory motor development and secure attachment.
~20hr Online Course
NDC for Providers + Educators
A practical infant sleep course adapted from The Possums Sleep Programs and developed in collaboration with Professor Helen Ball, Durham University, and her team. SBY gives you clear, evidence-based tools for talking about infant sleep with families, without using sleep training or extinction-based methods. Open to anyone working with families.
Learn More
Hover over a journal to read its findings.
Tap a journal to read its findings.
Health professionals reported: improvements in knowledge on infant sleep regulation, the mother–infant relationship and ACT; improvements in health professionals' own sleep quality; improvements in psychological flexibility; and a reduction in professional burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
Whittingham et al (2020) `Evaluating the “possums” health professional training in parent–infant sleep`, Infant Mental Health Journal, 41(5), pp. 603-613.
…the approach was found to be acceptable to parents and perceived by them to align parent and infant needs, improve their quality of life, and reduce their focus on perceived infant sleep problems.
Ball et al (2018) 'The Possums Infant Sleep Program: parents' perspectives on a novel parent-infant sleep intervention in Australia', Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, 4(6), pp. 519-526.
… A clear positive effect on the quality of emotional availability in the relationship, at least as perceived by mothers. As such, the intervention appears to have a positive effect on the environment that supports good sleep.
Closson et al (2020) `Evaluation of possums sleep intervention: A pilot feasibility study`, Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 10(2), pp. 15–23.
… A promising tool for promoting parental attitude and behaviour-change, that aims to adjust parental expectations and reduce negative thinking around infant sleep, promote responsive infant care in the face of infant-related sleep disruption and fatigue, and support parental well-being during the first year of parenthood.
Ball et al (2020) `Development and evaluation of "Sleep, Baby & You"—An approach to supporting parental well-being and responsive infant caregiving`, Plos One, 15(8), e0237240.
The Possum infant sleep program provided equivalent positive results on sleep parameters compared to usual care while advocating a more cued response. The critical difference was evident in sustained breastfeeding.
Öztürk, et al (2021) `Possums-based parental education for infant sleep: cued care resulting in sustained breastfeeding`, European Journal of Pediatrics, 180(6), pp. 1769–1776.
These encouraging results support the hypothesis that the gestalt approach to fit and hold increases intra-oral breast tissue volume by eliminating conflicting vectors of force.
Perrella et al (2022), ‘A brief gestalt intervention changes ultrasound measures of tongue movement during breastfeeding: case series’, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 22(94).
Preliminary evaluation demonstrates decreased duration of evening and night-time crying and improved maternal mood 3-4 weeks after intervention.
Douglas et al (2013), ‘Preliminary evaluation of a primary care intervention for cry-fuss behaviours in the first 3-4 months of life (‘The Possums Approach’): effects on cry-fuss behaviours and maternal mood’, Australian Journal of Primary Health, 21, pp:38-45
Findings of this study are consistent with access to NDC/ Possums services being efficacious for infants’ crying, maternal perception of their baby’s sleep problems, maternal sleep satisfaction, maternal experiential avoidance and maternal risk of postnatal depression… These preliminary findings suggest that NDC/Possums programs are effective and are relevant to public health, clinical practice, and health professional education settings.
Crawford et al (2022), ‘An evaluation of Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC/Possums Programs) in the First 12 Months of Life’, Matern Child Health Journal, 26, pp.110-123
Mothers in this study found that NDC supported them to balance a range of different occupations flexibly, including leisure and social occupations and occupations to care for themselves.
Crawford et al (2023), ‘New perspectives on responsive infant care: A qualitative study of the ways in which Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC) shapes mother-infant co-occupations’, Journal of Occupational Science, 31, pp.337-353.
Tenth evaluation completed. Publication forthcoming.
Finding Pam and her work has been the biggest "Aha" moment of my entire career. What I am learning has transformed the experience of countless mothers and their babies.
Gerda Blough
…[I've] found her [Dr Pamela Douglas'] work and teaching revolutionary in helping my patients navigate the early days of parenthood… Her advice takes so much pressure off new mums and is a breath of fresh air amongst so much noise out there.
Caitlyn
The NDC program has armed me with tools that are evidence-based to more effectively care for mothers and babies... I feel much more equipped to manage the conflicting advice out there... I am now able to help solve many breastfeeding problems during my GP consults and no longer need to refer to a lactation consultant.
Dr Briony Andrew
Once I began to incorporate [Possums/NDC] into my practice, I immediately noticed a significant improvement in pain free breastfeeding, reduction in cry-fuss issues, improvement in sleep, and finally and most importantly of all - much much happier mammas!
Robyn
Pam's work puts vulnerable families' needs first and prioritises long term good mental health for both caregivers and infants. One practitioner at a time, Dr Pam is changing the world for the better.
Bethany Wilson
I have found Pam's course to be so thorough and engaging... Since commencing the study, I have started integrating her techniques of fit and hold into my practice as a Midwife... I have found parents to be much more engaged with the process, and left feeling confident and empowered with a set of tools to draw on as they grow and learn together with their baby.
Jemma Cann
Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC), commonly known as The Possums Programs or simply Possums, is a comprehensive multi-domain approach to the care of families and their infants, developed by an Australian GP-researcher and her teams over the past 25 years applying best-practice implementation science. The latest research in multiple fields has been translated using the lenses of complexity science, evolutionary biology, and transdisciplinary generalism into clinical approaches for the wide range of presentations across the interrelated domains of breastfeeding and lactation, infant feeds, infant sleep, cry-fuss problems, sensory motor development and perinatal mental health. As a result, NDC clinical interventions are genuinely holistic, built on the understanding that no one domain can be effectively addressed without skills for managing the other interrelated domains. The NDC framework has been laid out in 30+ peer-reviewed research papers and positive outcomes are demonstrated in 10 independent university-led research evaluations to date.
NDC Accreditation is 50 hours of education completed flexibly online over 12 months, building on the two prerequisite NDC Masterclasses (12 hours each), for a minimum of 74 hours study and upskilling. Most clinicians find the Masterclasses comfortably achievable alongside Accreditation within the 12-month bundle period, working at their own pace. Extensions are available if you need more time. Annual Maintenance then keeps your accreditation current.
The NDC Institute offers professional courses tailored to the full spectrum of those providing services to parents and infants. Doctors, nurses, midwives and other registered health professionals follow The NDC Masterclasses + Accreditation Pathway, with the option of becoming NDC Accredited and joining weekly Live Network Hours, including monthly doctors-only sessions for medical practitioners. The NDC Lactation Fellowship offers the highest level of upskilling for doctors (Stream 2) and registered health professionals (Stream 1) who have a special interest in breastfeeding and lactation medicine. Providers and educators such as doulas, breastfeeding counsellors, sleep consultants and childcare workers take the NDC for Providers + Educators Pathway, and Sleep, Baby & You is a short infant sleep course open to anyone working with families. IBCLCs are routed by registration status: those who also hold health professional registration in their own country take the Accreditation route, while others join NDC for Providers + Educators. If you are unsure which fits your scope, please contact education@possums.org.
The Neuroprotective Developmental Care approach to infant sleep (known as The Possums Sleep Program) is a rigorously evidence-based approach that works without sleep training, including without graduated extinction methods or self-settling strategies. Today, hybrid methods described as gentle and responsive still incorporate elements of sleep training philosophies, and are not demonstrated to be effective. First-wave behavioural models (sleep training) frame infant sleep as a behaviour which can be shaped. NDC applies an evolutionary frame understanding that sleep is biologically regulated. Breastfeeding, sleep, feeds, cry-fuss problems, sensory motor development and parent mental health are addressed together in the Possums holistic approach to optimal parent-infant sleep.
Clinical breastfeeding and lactation support remains a research frontier. As a result, much of what is offered in lactation education today lacks an evidence-base, and builds on unexamined or assumed theoretical frames to offer clinical interventions which have not been demonstrated to be effective. NDC lactation education is uniquely built from published theoretical frames, translated into clinical interventions using implementation science. NDC lactation pioneers integration of the principles of mechanobiology and evolutionary bodywork and uniquely positions breastfeeding medicine as foundationally important in the domains of perinatal mental health, unsettled infant behaviour, and infant motor development, which interact together.
NDC also teaches critique of theoretical models and of the systems that carry them, from the understanding that ideology does not best serve parents.
Yes. NDC Masterclasses and Accreditation courses are CPD-recognised activities with RACGP, ACM, ASPM and ACRRM. The NDC Institute is an RACGP CPD Provider. Please see the course pages for further details. Dr Pamela Douglas and all NDC courses are compliant with the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and associated WHA resolutions. According to the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners Individual CERPs Guide for Recertification (Section IIIA), independent study modules awarded continuing education credit by another board or organisation may be counted for CERPs. 1 CERP can be self-logged with IBLCE for every 60 minutes of NDC lactation-related education undertaken.
Yes, for clinicians who are already registered health professionals. The NDC Lactation Fellowship is an advanced qualification in lactation medicine available to NDC Accredited Practitioners only. Because participants already hold clinical registration, the Fellowship requires no supervised clinical hours, although the self-logging of cases and clinical case discussions are required. The single 2026 program of 29 self-paced modules follows the NABBLM-recommended curriculum, meets the IBLCE Lactation Specific Education requirements, and lets existing IBCLCs self-log CERPs with IBLCE. The NDC Lactation Fellowship understands that science advances through rigorous (and respectful) debate, critique of theoretical frameworks, and transparent analysis of current systems. Learn more on the NDC Lactation Fellowship page.
The NDC Accreditation pathway is the pathway for health professionals. The two NDC Masterclasses teach the fundamentals and are the entry point. For some, this will be enough. The NDC Accreditation course builds on the Masterclasses and grants the title NDC Accredited on completion, kept current by annual membership of Maintenance. The NDC Lactation Fellowship is a specialist tier in breastfeeding and lactation medicine. NDC for Providers + Educators is the pathway for those who work with families and infants but aren't registered health professionals, and Sleep, Baby & You is a short infant sleep course open to anyone working with families. Full details are on each course page.
NDC Institute courses range from $200 AUD for Sleep, Baby & You to $1200 AUD for the full NDC Accreditation bundle, with all prices including GST for Australians. Most registered health professionals choose the Accreditation bundle, which combines both NDC Masterclasses with the Accreditation course at a saving. Annual Maintenance then keeps your accreditation current. NDC Accredited Practitioners enrolled in Maintenance can join the 5-year cycle of the NDC Lactation Fellowship pathway for $200 AUD. Current prices for every course, including bundles, are listed on each course page.
An NDC Accredited Practitioner is a registered health professional qualified by The NDC Institute to deliver Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC or The Possums Programs) in clinical practice, with listing on the Find an NDC Practitioner page and use of the NDC Accredited identity and logo. You become NDC Accredited by completing The NDC Accreditation Pathway: the two NDC Masterclasses, then the NDC Accreditation course, then staying current with a simple annual Maintenance membership that keeps your accreditation current. More than 1,000 professionals have trained with The NDC Institute since it opened its doors in 2023. Start with the Masterclasses, or choose the full bundle on the Accreditation page.
