Our Classes

We are proud to offer

Pre Natal Classes

In - Person classes will resume in September 2023 for weekend sessions in Ottawa, Ontario. Virtual classes will continue for evening sessions for those across Canada.
We ask that participants keep their videos on during class for our online group classes.  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 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
  • Physiology of birth
  • Stages and Phases of labour
  • Comfort measures
  • All options for pain management
  • Interventions including 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, or for expectant parents 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 $230 (CAD) (per couple) for the two-day class and $175 (CAD per couple) for the one-day class.

What materials are provided for class?  To make the class as interactive and hands-on as possible, we will share 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 strive to reduce environmental impacts by offering all resources in e-formats.

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.  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.

Again, the very frank and honest explanations of what to expect are extremely valuable. These are things that nobody ever tells you and are usually very difficult to talk about.

Pre Natal – with Julia Wykes

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

I was looking to be informed about what to expect during labour and birth and this course did not disappoint! My husband and I feel informed, equipped, and more ready to prepare for the big day to come.

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

Michelle was amazing! It would have been nicer if the class was in-person and we could practice more positions, but I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot. Thank you so much!

Pre Natal – with Michelle Morra

Lilly was fantastic and had a calm yet informative and empowering approach to educating our class on prenatal subjects. She was thorough and welcomed any questions we had, which created a very open and comfortable atmosphere for learning. My partner and I looked forward to our lessons and felt we benefiitted from them immensely.

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

I’ve taken two courses with OCEA, and both were chock-full of useful and practical information and tips. I like that the instructors were careful about discussing the evidence for various claims, and were very engaging and responsive to questions.

Pre Natal – with Misty Pratt

Lilly was so amazing! She was informative without being judgmental, honest withput being scary, and clearly knew the material inside out. We would absolutely recommend this course to other new parents!

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

Brandie is amazing! She is so well educated, so encouraging, kind, empathetic, nonjudgemental. You can tell she truly just wants people to be informed and have the best birthing experience and postpartum journey they can have, whatever that looks like for each couple.

Pre Natal – with Brandie Lekovic

Lilly is a very skilled educator. She lays out the course material in a way that is very approachable and spends an appropriate amount of time on each subject. More importantly, Lilly created a safe environment in the class where no one ever felt intimidated by asking a question, and used inclusive terms like "partner" instead of "dad" or "husband" and "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding". I would recommend Lilly's class to everyone I know!

Pre Natal – with Lilly Bianchi

This class was great! She was so well prepared and had wonderful images and props and ways of explaining things that made learning about giving birth very accessible.

Pre Natal One Day – with Brandie Lekovic

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


 
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