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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 post birth.

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 can 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, the size of our room rentals and the evolving state of our global pandemic, OCEA will continue to offer all classes online throughout 2022.
We dearly want to support the health of expectant families.

Brandie was a wonderful instructor. She was organized and personable. The content was fresh and relevant. It exceeded our expectations!

Bringing Baby Home – with Brandie Lekovic

Highly recommend taking this course. There is so much information available out there, but to have it consolidated into a series of classes led by a fantastic educator made us feel confident in moving towards our next phase of life with our newborn. Erin is endlessly knowledgeable and patient, she is well-versed with all the most up to date research and health guidelines, and her familiarity of local resources is amazing. There is so much to learn, but this class made it feel manageable.

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

OCEA's classes are fantastic! I have taken a handful and learned a bunch from each one. The facilitators are stellar, every class is worthwhile

Bringing Baby Home – with Brandie Lekovic

We had a great 6 week online Prenatal class with Julia! My husband and I really enjoyed the facilitation of the class and topics/information presented and discussed. It was very helpful and informative. We also really appreciated Julia's down-to-earth nature and very realistic views and presentation of the topics. Julia was very detailed but kept it light and realistic with no sugar coating, which is just what we needed! - thank you!!

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

Was very impressed with the educator, delivery, personal stories and experiences and neutral, evidence based opinions and attitude

Bringing Baby Home – with Brandie Lekovic

Comfort of my own home :)

Pre Natal One Day – with Brandie Lekovic

Julia was extremely knowledgable and friendly. We loved that she remained neutral about all the interventions and methods of caring for baby and mom. If she has any biases, they were not obvious, and we thought that that was really great. She made us feel safe and welcome and confident in any of the choices we might have to make when we deliver our baby.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

Discussions and candid disclosure of information about various topics

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

Erin was really wonderful and had so much information that was easy to follow and was non-judgemental with any questions you had. She did really well with teaching the class online given the current situation.

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

I could not speak more highly of Brandie! She is an absolutely phenomenal instructor - knowledgeable, personable, well-spoken, organized - I could go on! She used props to help illustrate concepts, answered a wide variety of questions, provided resources, and engaged the group (not easy over Zoom). She also stayed online as long as needed after each session to answer any additional questions that arose. Taking this course alleviated my fears about childbirth and increased my confidence. I would highly recommend her to anyone!

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic

Lilly was fantastic and had a calm, informative and empowering approach to educating our class on prenatal subjects and what we could expect as new parents. She was very thorough and welcomed any questions we had, which created a very open and comfortable atmosphere for learning. Lily took the time to learn about each couple's care and birth plans, and was able to cater information to us in a very thoughtful way. My partner and I looked forward to our lessons and felt we benefited from them immensely, I would highly recommend this course to parents-to-be!

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

This course was provided via zoom and I don't feel like I missed out on anything by participating virtually. The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and answered every question. I felt her sympathy for all of the birthing women during this COVID19 environment.

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi


 
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