Wow, this sounds so foreign to me.  Are the babies involved in this method of sleep training only children?  If I did this with my 9 month old the whole family would be in there seeing what is wrong.  I believe this is a normal response within the family.  Everyone gathers around the family member who needs help.  A baby crying needs a responsive person to meet this need.  It is a need, not a want, not a manipulation not poor sleeping habits.  Babies are designed to wake up.  This is a built in mechanism to prevent SIDS.  Co-sleeping and breastfeeding have been shown to reduce SIDS.  Co-sleeping when done safely.  A normal full nights sleep according to some experts is only 5 hours for babies. 

I am not sure what all the fuss is about with sleep training.  What is the rush?

I was in no rush to sleep train my daughter, in fact, I never thought I'd ever sleep train her, because I didn't believe in the CIO method. That being said, I'm also very flexible to change when situations aren't going the way you want them to go. It's one thing if your child wants to sleep in the same bed as you, But when the only scene that would "help" your 9 months old go to sleep is sleeping in our bed with her mouth and hands glued to your breast, that to me, isn't a need, but simply a want.

She hasn't turned into the perfect sleeper with no wake ups at all, in fact, we know she wakes up a few times a night, but the fact is, she no longer uses us as her crutch to go back to sleep. Cry she may, and cry she will, but at least she can put herself back to sleep.

One thing we noticed as a result of the sleep training, is that she no longer will take a pacifier. I gave it to her on a couple of occasions in the beginning of our sleep training period, and she would take it and angrily whip it away from her. So since then, we haven't brought the pacifier out, and she seems to be doing ok without it.