Our Classes

We are proud to offer

Baby Steps

Welcome to OCEA's Tuesday morning new parent group!  Bring your baby, a warm drink, snack, and come to meet new friends!  
 
This new parent group will run on Tuesday mornings from 9:30-11 for eight weeks.  Each week we discuss a different topic around life with a newborn.  This group is geared toward families with babies from 0-6 months.  Topics will be reflective of each group's needs and may include any of the following:

  • Getting out and about with a newborn: sharing ideas of fun, easy outings with your newborn
  • Finding and creating time-saving strategies as a new parent
  • Family adjustments: setting gentle boundaries with loved ones, and managing expectations from friends and family.  
  • Days with our newborns: sharing ideas and suggestions for setting a nice rhythm to our days
  • Sleep and naps:  let's share our sleep wins and challenges!  
  • Open question week:  Bring your questions and let's discuss and brainstorm some ideas
  • Planning family meals: meal prep is an ongoing task, as support during the "5-7 pm shift" and so much more.
  • Baby wearing: bring your carriers, let's try them on and make adjustments
 
Baby Steps will be facilitated by Michelle Morra, an OCEA  prenatal educator,  postpartum doula and parent to five.   Michelle's calm approach to gentle parenting and supportive care towards new parents will make this a wonderful, non-judgemental, safe group.  Michelle looks forward to welcoming you and your baby in the fall!  
 
The cost of the class is $150 (+hst)

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.  Requests for date changes within 7 days of class will reflect a $75 fee.  
 

People who took our class had this to say:


We dearly want to support the health of expectant families.

Our prenatal class was an amazing experience! Brandie made us feel comfortable and created a safe, engaging learning environment. Her great energy and use of visuals made everything easy to understand. Thanks to this class, we are leaving feeling reassured, confident, and ready for our baby’s arrival. We truly appreciate the thoughtful approach and highly recommend this class to any expecting parents!

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic

Our educator Erin was an expert and was very clear in her method of teaching. All my questions were answered and the class interaction was very good. I would take another course with OCEA.

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

We liked when studies, research, etc. were referenced when presenting information. There is so much information out there that it's nice to know when information has been validated by research.

Bringing Baby Home – with Brandie Lekovic

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

This course will help you answer questions you didn't even know you had - both for people who are pregnant and their partners!

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

Julia is EXCELLENT! She was very knowledgeable and very funny! She knew how to navigate those awkward and uncomfortable topics with care and grace. If we have a 2nd baby, I would love to have Julia as my midwife :)

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

Yes - Couldn't recommend these classes more. After taking the Pre Natal and Bringing Home Baby Classes, myself and I my partner both feel more prepared for the unexpected and to welcome our baby home. We now have many tools and resources specific to our area to help us through the process.

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic

Erin is incredible! The classes flew by as she kept us all engaged and excited throughout each part and truly made things fun and less overwhelming. She is up to date on all guidelines and laws and quick to answer any questions that arise!

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

Great class, I signed up mostly for my husband to get him ready, I was so nervous that he would not know what to do but now I feel more confident. We are a first time parents.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

Exceeded expectations on both professional and personal levels! Michelle was Absolutely wonderful - well we felt so lucky to have her as our educator

Pre Natal – with Michelle Morra

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

Yes. Julia was a great teacher! We appreciated her forthright and balanced approach to teaching. We loved the frank way she handled all questions and concerns. She created a judgement free environment - which is exactly what you want as first-time parents.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes


 
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  • In Person

    Baby Steps
    7 weeks
    Tue, May 13 · May 20 · May 27 · June 3 ·
    June 10 · June 17 & June 24, 2025

    09:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    300 des Pères-Blancs Avenue
    Register now