About us page
All of our teachers have completed their teacher training with the OCEA. Many of our teachers have other related childbirth and parenting experiences and complimentary training. The following women are part of the OCEA team:
Erin Shaheen
Erin has been the registrar since 1998, responding to calls and online registrations. She has been teaching Childbirth classes since 1999 and teaches the Bringing Baby Home class. She is a retired La Leche League Leader, Heart and Stroke CPR instructor and a Ministry of Transportation trained car seat installer. She is a DONA trained postpartum doula. She is the proud mother of four children aged, 12, 9 and 6 year old twins.
Tabitha Bernard
Tabitha is a DONA trained birth & postpartum doula and a Canadian Mothercraft Birth Companion. She is currently writing her Master's thesis on the ethics and social policy implications of mainstream and alternative approaches to childbirth in North America. Tabitha is certified through the Ministry of Transportation as a car seat installer and works each Friday afternoon at Canadian Mothercraft's Breastfeeding Drop in.
Sabine Paagman De-Graaf
Sabine is a CAPPA* certified Childbirth Educator and she strongly believes every woman should have a great support team to help make her birth a positive and empowering experience. She has been a volunteer with Canadian Mothercraft since 2005, coaching pregnant women and new parents through the transition to parenthood.
Her main job is taking care of her two sons, aged two and five. (*Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association)
Brandie Lekovic
As a DONA-trained doula, childbirth educator, infant massage instructor and prenatal nutrition program facilitator, Brandie has provided individualized prenatal education and counseling, breastfeeding support, and nutritional recommendations to new and soon-to-be parents for close to a decade. She is the proud mama of two boys and passionately promotes positive, empowering birth experiences, believing that women intuitively know how to birth.
Heather Konchak Olszewski, BSc
Heather is involved in prenatal care and labour support as a birth companion for Canadian Mothercraft and is a DONA trained postpartum doula. She also volunteers as a counsellor for breastfeeding mothers as part of the Breastfeeding Buddy Program. Heather believes that every birth should be a positive experience, and that education about birthing options is the key to achieving an empowering birth. Heather is the proud mum of two girls, aged three and one.
A note about contacting CEA : Ottawa CEA strives to provide the best prenatal classes in Ottawa, and as such, our priority is our time with you in the class. We will endeavour answer all your calls, but should you get our answering maching we will return calls within a 24 hour period. For immediate reply, please email us as we often are in the office very early in the morning and very late at night. You may be surprised to have a call answered at 6am or 10pm!