Our Classes

We are proud to offer

Bringing Baby Home

The OCEA Bringing Baby Home class was developed in 2004, by Erin Shaheen, to fill an information gap for expectant families on the transition to parenting after birth.  With a strong background in mental health counselling, post-partum Doula support and a variety of additional certifications (CPR, Car seat Installation, Breastfeeding counsellor, Infant Sleep Educator, Circle of Security Training, Self-Reg with Stuart Shanker), Erin brought all of this information into a full two day or six evening class.

As our other classes have shifted back to in-person or online, the BBH class remains exclusively online. This has allowed us to present resources, websites and videos, in ways not possible in person. We acknowledge that this also increases inclusivity for those who have barriers to in-person attendance due to transportation limitations, for participants outside the City of Ottawa and for those who may either be on bed rest or are immune compromised.

This is NOT your regular online class! Erin has a Master's in Education specializing in course development and has tailored the content delivery to an online, small-group format. We look forward to having you join the BBH class!

This class welcomes all families including families giving birth to babies, or having babies join through adoption or surrogacy.

We ask that all participants keep their video on throughout the small online 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 one-on-one session with one of our instructors.  Online classes are accessible to anyone across Canada and run over four weekend mornings from 9 am-12 pm or online over six evenings.

Our Bringing Baby Home class is a hands-on parenting class for expectant parents including
  • Choosing daycare and managing the wait list
  • Building your after-birth support system, including filling in service gaps when you do not have a Family Doctor
  • How to decide what items to purchase for life with a baby
  • Basic baby care including bathing, swaddling, and holding the baby
  • The difference between cloth diapers, disposable diapers and diaper service and the diaper loaner program
  • Benefits of babywearing and how to pick baby carriers for ergonomics
  • Infant Feeding and introducing solids
  • What you need to know when purchasing a car seat for your baby
  • Learn how to properly and safely install your car seat
  • How to properly restrain newborns in car seats
  • How to deal with choking
  • Babyproofing: how to make your home safer for your baby
  • Learn the most common cause of injuries and how they can be prevented
  • Where to purchase home safety products

The cost of the class is $200 (CAD) (per couple). 
*A couple is defined as a pregnant person and one support person (which can be a spouse, partner, friend or family member)

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 changes within 7 days of class will reflect a $75 fee.  Please remember this when booking classes and plan to finish your session by 35 weeks.

People who took our class had this to say:


We dearly want to support the health of expectant families.

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

Lilly was incredible, she shared the information that can appear as quite daunting in such a calm, humble matter. At no point did she make my husband and I feel overhwlemed by the information abd when information felt overhwhelming, she ensured to make the time to calm all of our worries and answer all our questions

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

Julia was wonderful. Her voice is both lively and soothing to listen to. She’s also really hilarious. I loved the added bits of humour. She gave many opportunities to ask questions throughout the course. If she isn’t sure about something, she accesses her own resources/network and gets back to you with an answer. As COVID protocols are constantly changing within the healthcare domain (hospitals, birth centres, home births), I thought she was very knowledgeable about the current situation within each place. She was very knowledgeable about the birth process and the postpartum period for the family unit. There were many resources that we could access to facilitate some of the topics within the class that could need more attention either in the prenatal period or postpartum period (I.e infant feeding) which was great!

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

We highly recommend taking classes with OCEA. Instructors are beyond knowledgeable and so warm and helpful. We learned SO much and now have a wealth of resources to tap into when needed!

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

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

I've been reading a lot about parenting and have a sister in law who is very passionate about parenting and I have been around to watch her raising three kids so I have been exposed to a lot of the philosophies. I really appreciated the break down of the sleep discourses and looking at the sleep training stuff, as I had a friend who sent me a huge amount of sleep training info that was like an airplane manual it was so complex and I thought it seemed a little intimidating and unnecessary/counterintuitive, so I was glad to hear that it is not the bible of baby sleep approaches.

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

We would highly recommend the OCEA's Bringing Home Baby class to any expecting parents. Our instructor was extremely knowledgeable and was very generous with sharing her time and vast experience. This was incredibly useful in helping us navigate the overwhelming amount of information available and left us with a great overview of the most important points of caring for a new baby as well as a long list of quality resources for more detailed information when we need it. Thank you so much Erin!

Bringing Baby Home – with Erin Shaheen

She was very informative and very kind. Thank you again for starting a chat at the end of the class about how all of us were doing and suggesting that we check in again in a week.

Pre Natal One Day – with Brandie Lekovic

Yes!! You are welcome to use the following with our without Michelle's name. "We are so happy with our experience through OCEA. We would recommend their prenatal class to every new parent! Our educator Michelle made us feel so supported and taught us so much without giving us information overload. We feel so much more empowered and ready to face this new chapter of life."

Pre Natal – with Michelle Morra

I would recommend this prenatal class to anyone having a baby! The mechanics of childbirth are so much more complicated than I thought, but Brandie explained everything perfectly! We laughed, and learned so much! I definitely recommend the course, it is SO worth the investment!

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic

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

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


 
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    6 weekday evenings
    FULL
    Mon, June 30 · July 2 · July 7 · July 9 ·
    July 14 & July 16, 2025

    07:00 PM - 09:15 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, July 5 · July 6 · July 12 & July 13, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, July 5 · July 6 · July 12 & July 13, 2025
    01:00 PM - 04:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
    Register now

  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    6 weekday evenings
    Tue, Aug. 5 · Aug. 7 · Aug. 12 · Aug. 14 ·
    Aug. 19 & Aug. 21, 2025

    07:00 PM - 09:15 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
    Register now

  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    2 Registration Left
    Sat, Aug. 9 · Aug. 10 · Aug. 16 & Aug. 17, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
    Register now

  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    6 weekday evenings
    Thu, Sept. 4 · Sept. 11 · Sept. 18 · Sept. 25 ·
    Oct. 2 & Oct. 9, 2025

    07:00 PM - 09:15 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
    Register now

  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    6 weekday evenings
    Tue, Sept. 16 · Sept. 23 · Sept. 30 · Oct. 7 ·
    Oct. 14 & Oct. 21, 2025

    07:00 PM - 09:15 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, Oct. 18 · Oct. 19 · Oct. 25 & Oct. 26, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, Nov. 1 · Nov. 2 · Nov. 8 & Nov. 9, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, Nov. 15 · Nov. 16 · Nov. 22 & Nov. 23, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
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  • Online

    Bringing Baby Home
    weekend
    Sat, Dec. 6 · Dec. 7 · Dec. 13 & Dec. 14, 2025
    09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Online Class Using Zoom
    Register now