Yes - I would certainly recommend this course to anyone. CEA provides helpful, clear, concise and evidence-based information to help guide you through the labour process, and post-partum. I especially appreciated the wide-range of information and options presented and the emphasis on "family choice" so that you can feel empowered to make decisions that are right for you. The course has made me and my partner feel better equipped and confident about our upcoming labour. Thank you!

I would highly recommend this class. My partner and I found it very valuable in preparing for the coming months. The quality of information and the knowledge of the educator made this class worth every penny.

This class was unbelievably helpful for navigating the crazy world of new / first borns. My husband and I feel more equipped for bringing our baby home and learned so much about the options and resources available to us. Highly recommend for first time parents!

We would highly recommend this course to any new parents. I thought I knew a fair bit going in, but came away with a ton of new information. We feel more excited and more reassured about our ability to manage our new arrival than we did before the course. It really increased our confidence.

I was nervous to take a prenatal course, thinking I would get overwhelmed with too much information in too short a time. Instead, I came out of this class feeling well-informed actually more relaxed about labour and the birthing process. The subject matter was exactly what I needed, but what was even better was the fun, informative and laid back teaching style of our instructor, Collette. I would recommend this class to anyone!

I will be recommending this class to each of my friends who become pregnant! Lots of great information and no judgment. Thanks again!

The condensed Pre Natal Class offered by the Ottawa CEA is an informative and interactive one-day course that assists parents navigating through the final stages of pregnancy and the early days of parenthood. The course has wonderful educators who provide unbiased material on current practices of natural and assisted labour, breastfeeding techniques and provides resources for parents. The course is also beneficial for partners and provides a toolkit of suggestions on how to become a helpful participant in the birthing process. Overall, the one-day course was helpful and more than adequate for us as we make the transition to becoming parents.

Excellent prenatal class. A must do for a first time parent. Not only do they give you all the essential information you need, but they help reduce fears. It's a great chance to ask questions and to have things you've heard cleared up and explained. I highly recommend giving it a try. Starts great conversations with your birth partner and gives you a better sense of what might be right for you.

As a pregnant woman, I went into this course with a lot of fear about labour and birth, and I came out feeling like, "I can do this!" Our instructor was unbiased, kind, and funny, and we felt like we could really trust her and the information she offered. We also connected with the other couples in the course, extending the community of support around us for when baby arrives! This course exceeded our expectations. Thank you!

The CEA does an excellent job of providing an informative and cost effective class on child birth. My husband and I left feeling much more secure in our decisions about our labor and would recommend the class to anyone wanting to know more about the process, both physically and institutionally.

The Bringing Home Baby Course have my husband and I the confidence we needed and are now more than ready to bring home our baby. The course reinforces your natural parenting instincts while offering some new insights along the way. Highly recommend!

My wife and I recently participated in two Ottawa CEA programs - Prenatal/Labour and Bringing Baby Home. Both programs were taught by extremely knowledgeable instructors who were very efficient at passing on the information in a manner that was suitable for everyone in the class. I believe that their information was all up to date as often they were quoting from very recent and varied resources. I strongly recommend that expectant parents who may be uncertain of their own level of knowledge about baby care, consider these programs. We found them to be great value for the money. Trevor McLeod Ottawa

Before I took this prenatal class I was very nervous about the prospect of childbirth. This class taught me about all my options from pain relief, to breastfeeding, and most of all how to be an advocate for myself and my daughter. I now feel confident in my ability to give birth and feel less scared and more excited. Our educator was very kind and knowledgeable and gave a very non bias view on everything which I found most important and really helped my husband and I come up with a birth plan that is right for us.

A must for all first-time parents in the Ottawa Area. Although the Bringing Baby Home Class came highly recommended to me, it still exceeded all my expectations and I definitely will telling all the mothers to be about it in the future.

I'm really happy my partner and I took this course. I feel better prepared for going through labour and delivery, and feel I learned lots of practical tips that I had not come across in my work in the medical field. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone I knew expecting a baby in Ottawa!

"This is a wonderful class to take as a new parent. It is very inclusive of partners and how they can support you throughout the labor process. It was full of information, much of it I would have never thought to even ask about! Patient teacher, willing to answer all questions. Class is tailored to the needs of those present, that was much appreciated. I recommend this to anyone expecting their first child!"

We can't imagine NOT having taken the course! Not only did we learn a lot of useful things but with the money we'll save not buying unnecessary items the course paid for itself!! We highly recommend every new parent take this course!

Although we have plenty of resources available to us, including couples that have recently had babies (some of which explore more "alternative" or new methods in raising their children and others more conservative), plenty of people that are giving us advice, books, online tutorials etc... this course was truly invaluable. The course structure made a lot of sense and the instructor (we had Erin) was so knowledgeable, answering questions based on her wealth of experience, existing research studies, historical context and so on. We can't imagine this information being conveyed in any other way other than in a class such as this. We literally could ask anything pertaining to the course topics and would get a very good answer. We will be recommending this course to everyone that is expecting. We found it especially helpful that we had not made any baby related purchases yet because one component of this course was about what products to buy, should wait to buy, not buy and WHY. Thank you!

The class was very thorough, capturing the first weeks of having a newborn! The instructor was fantastic- thorough, knowledgeable, engaging, and made everything relatable to what being a first- time parent is like! I would take other courses offered, because I would feel confident that I was getting the best information to make choices from out there!

Our classes were interesting, detailed, dynamic, and fun. Our instructor put everyone at ease while preparing us for our birth. She used a range of teaching techniques that kept everyone interested. We were given a wealth of information that has really made us feel ready and excited. We did not expect to enjoy child birth education classes as much as we did. Thank you!

Yes. If you only take one class before the birth of your baby, I would highly recommend that it be the Bringing Baby Home class. My husband and I learned so much during this class that has increased our confidence in our ability to parent. We also feel like we are much more aware of the resources that are available to us as parents, which will also be very useful.

Very helpful course. At a time in our lives where are feeling overwhelmed with information and feel unsure about our ability to care for a baby, this course broke things down in main topics, offered manageable information and provided us with lots more resources for things we might want to know more about or with which we might encounter issues.

As a first-time expectant mother, I had all kinds of questions about what to expect. I found that the information provided but the Ottawa CEA was really helpful and backed up by lots of evidence, both scientific and anecdotal. It was a helpful addition to the mix of information that we have been getting from books, family and friends. I highly recommend Ottawa CEA classes to expectant mothers. The teachers are really well-informed and they create great learning environments where you have a chance to learn from them but also from other parents. (If possible, please just use my first name if you publish this blurb in your testimonial. Thanks!) Also - I don't think I adequately expressed how much I appreciated Tabitha's efforts during our class. She was a great teacher and made me feel both more excited, and more prepared, for what is in store. Many thanks!

My husband and I expected a baby-basics class. What we ended up getting out of the Bringing Baby Home course was plenty of up-to-date information on just about everything baby-related, reliable resources we didn't even know existed, and, most importantly, peace of mind! We would highly recommend this class to all expecting couples. Even if you have done other prenatal classes, you will not regret doing the BBH course.

We appreciated all the information presented in the Bringing Baby Home course. It not only filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge, but it put everything together in a way that let us get a solid idea of what life with baby will be like. We would definitely recommend it to any new parents. Our instructor was amazing - approachable, incredibly knowledgeable and experienced (as a mother of four herself) - and she presented balanced views and dealt with controversial issues in a sensitive and accessible way.

This course exceeded my expectations. I learned more in 14 hours then I have reading books over the last 5 months. The information (unlike a lot of books) is current, accurate with Canadian health standards and taught with a hands on, practical approach. EVERY new patent should take this class.

Of course! Ottawa CEA Pre Natal Class was the most informative source of information that I've come into contact with since getting pregnant! This isn't an old-fashioned, dry course that tells you not to smoke (because you should know that anyway), or shows you how to swaddle a baby. The information provided was up-to-date, reliable and relatable. The teaching method was objective, with no judgements of one's perferred method of childbirth. There was much more active learning than I had expected, but it never got overwhelming. The pacing was perfect for two days! The course gave me a clear idea of what it might be like to be in labour, and empowered me with information. I know feel as though I have actual tools that will help me prepare for the big day! I highly recommend this course for both soon-to-be parents, as my support partner also gained much knowledge from the course and feels more comfortable with being my support.

The course covered all of the major topics that new parents should be thinking about and presented an array of options in an approachable and practical way. From learning about the basics (eating, sleeping, diapering) to gaining a lot of information on important things that we otherwise wouldn't have thought about (infant CPR, baby gear essentials, healthy attachment practices, parenting resources in Ottawa), we came away feeling far more confident in our knowledge and level of preparation for bringing our baby home!

Everyone should take advantage of the courses offered by OCEA! What a great service for new, local parents.

Absolutely! Taking this class is one of the best decisions we've made as first-time parents-to-be, and we are so glad that we enrolled before making any major purchases or having our baby shower. We are bombarded with so many decisions regarding feeding, diapering, transportation and parenting, and this class was very effective at presenting some of these options to us in an easy to understand way, which has made us feel empowered to make consumer choices that will best suit our lifestyle. The course paid for itself within the first hour, when we were able to immediately rule out some of the purchases that we assumed were "must haves".