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Pre Natal Classes

For our online group classes, we ask that participants keep their videos on during class.  Like an in-person class, this creates a sense of community and safety.   If you prefer not to be seen, we recommend a private session with one of our instructors

We suggest you take your prenatal classes between 20 weeks and 36 weeks. Be sure to register early in your pregnancy in order to ensure a place is reserved for you. Classes are offered in the following formats:

6 Weekday Evenings OR Full Weekend One Day Condensed
  • Your birth support team – The role of the Midwife, family Doctor, OB, Registered Nurse and Doula
  • Stages and Phases of labour
  • Comfort measures including relaxation and massage techniques
  • Breath awareness
  • All options for pain management
  • Making decisions and giving consent
  • Methods of induction
  • Interventions including IV’s, fetal heart monitors, instrumental deliveries, inductions, and cesarean sections
  • Post-birth procedures for babies
  • Post-birth recovery for women
  • Resources in Ottawa
  • Infant feeding
  • Your birth support team – The role of the Midwife, family Doctor, OB, Registered Nurse and Doula
  • Stages and Phases of labour
  • All options for pain management
  • Interventions including instrumental deliveries, inductions and cesarean sections
  • Infant feeding resources
Topics are presented in a variety of methods including videos, hands-on practice, small group discussion and relaxation exercises. Topics are presented in a lecture-like style to allow for the time required to cover the content in a shorter space of time.

Our one-day condensed classes are excellent for those who may not otherwise have time to take a prenatal class at all, or for those who work shift work. We cover the topics shown in the above table, which offers a comparison to our 6-week series and two-day weekend classes.  We focus on labour and birth, leaving you with reading resources for the postpartum time.

Cost of classes is $175 (CAD) (per couple) for the two-day class and $155 (CAD per couple) for the one-day class and includes telephone and email contact with your instructor free parking and air-conditioned rooms. 
*a couple is defined as a pregnant person and one support person, which could be a spouse, partner, friend or family member)

What materials are provided for class?  In order to make the class as interactive and hands-on as possible, we will provide you with a series of links and information sheets five days before your class with your reminder email.  The internet has a wonderful amount of resources and we will link you to up-to-date resources on the net.  You do not need to print them off in advance.   We also make every effort to reduce paper use and keep our and your photocopying costs down.   

Refund Policy: When cancelling a prenatal class after it has been booked there is a $25 (CAD) administration fee. If the cancellation occurs less than 14 days before the class there is a 50% cancellation fee. If it is less than 7 days there is no refund.  Request for date changes within 7 days of class will reflect a $75 fee.  Please keep this in mind when booking classes and plan to be finished your session by 35 weeks.

People who took our online class during COVID-19 had this to say:

Given the continued need to physically distance and wear masks, OCEA will continue to offer all classes online throughout 2021.
We dearly want to support the health of our expectant families.

Erin was fantastic! She is extremely knowledgeable and is able to offer good recommendations without pushing her opinion on you. She was very friendly, has made herself accessible to help should we have questions or need help assessing our car seat setup, etc. We could not ask for a better educator!

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen April 25, 2020

The virtual prenatal class my husband and I took through the OCEA was an excellent experience! Useful and insightful information was presented in a thoughtful and organised fashion and we were also given additional resources upon completion of the course. There was time to ask questions over the duration of the course and the instructor was incredibly knowledgeable and able to offer examples of the situations she was discussing. I would highly recommend this course to any first time parents.

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic Jan. 30, 2021

During such a difficult time to be pregnant (I never thought my pregnancy would be during a pandemic!) it was really nice to come together with other couples in the same boat. Though it wasn't as social as an in class opportunity likely would have been, the sense of community is such a nice feeling.

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi April 22, 2020

The time that she took at the end to have a group chat and ask us all to check in. I would highly recommend that she do this with classes in the future. Ask questions and have the group check in. It was really nice to get the feedback and feelings of others in the class.

Pre Natal One Day – with Brandie Lekovic March 22, 2020

Discussions and candid disclosure of information about various topics

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes March 21, 2020

Misty was wonderful! Very knowledgeable, approachable, encouraging, warm - we appreciate it so much, especially in the current climate of unknowns. This course was a great experience - will recommend!

Pre Natal – with Misty Pratt March 14, 2020

I enjoyed the fact that we were at home, it made my wife more comfortable to be able to use our own bathroom and have snacks on hand etc. It also allowed us to must ourselves during the discussion and make comments to each other privately when an issues or decision that we wanted to discuss came up.

Pre Natal – with Misty Pratt June 20, 2020

I loved Brandie's chat at the end about plugging the baby into your life, and seeing the first 6 weeks as "vacation."

Bringing Baby Home – with Brandie Lekovic April 18, 2020

The OCEA pre-natal classes are extremely valuable for first-time expecting parents. The information is shared in a very open, practical and fact-based manner without any judgement attached. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the advice and research that is out there, but the OCEA classes really manage to distill this information and present it in a clear and structured way. The instructors are very experienced and knowledgeable and are great inter-personally. We were particularly impressed by how they handled giving online classes during the pandemic. They also provide a lot of Ottawa-specific information on the amazing resources that are available here. This was particularly useful to us as newcomers. We have many friends who have given birth in other countries, and when telling them about our experience with OCEA they have all said that nothing like this was available to them and it would have been so useful. Overall, we would highly recommend taking these classes.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes May 19, 2020

We both LOVED Julia's approach to teaching. She provided us with so much useful information and supported all areas of pregnancy. It was nice that she explained the pro's and con's of each topic without making one seem better than another or making us feel like we made a bad choice going the route we've chosen.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes May 19, 2020

Excellent experience, good speed, well communicated. She made everyone feel very comfortable, able to contribute and take something away. She is a knowledgeable trainer who kept the training interesting and stimulating. Loved the ice cube exercise!

Pre Natal One Day – with Misty Pratt July 11, 2020

OCEA classes, like the Bringing Baby Home course, were our best investment pre-baby! We feel more confident, prepared, and better equipped to deal with the normal challenges facing every new parents. We cannot recomment OCEA classes enough - the instructors are truly amazing, endless source of knowledge and compassion. OCEA classes are huge confidence boosters, and they are also...fun (even virtually). We loved everything about the Bringing Baby Home, and our ongoing pre-natal class.

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen Dec. 7, 2020


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