After having gone through the first year of motherhood together with our daughters, Jackie and I experienced all the ups and downs that new moms do. The self-doubt, the ridiculous questions, the tears, the laughter, the fear, the late night arguments with our husbands, the hours of searching Google for anything and everything. We experienced an overwhelming amount of information, and the do this and don’t do that or do this but you better not do it while you’re doing that, etc….

But somehow we made it through that first year, and it was then that we thought wouldn’t it be nice if we knew then what we know now?

We knew there were classes on how to breathe and how much it was going to hurt, and we weren’t seeking to replace birth preparation classes but rather provide something unique and valuable for expectant parents.

What if we could talk about all the things you spend hours on Google looking for. What if we could actually show you samples of cloth diapers and talk about it and take away some of the unknown and maybe inspire someone to give it a try. So we thought of all the things that we wished we had known more about before we got pregnant, like babywearing and breastfeeding and how to install a car seat!

So we got to planning our classes and were lucky enough to have so many amazing speakers agree to participate. (We truly couldn’t do it without you!!)

We were nervous for our first session, but then each class totally exceeded our expectations. We learned things that had changed since our daughters were born, we learned things we had forgotten about, and we got to watch the Moms and Dads-to-be learn. As one Mom said, it made her think of things she may have overlooked.

One of our Moms had the following to say:

“We took both classes and honestly, the health unit was fairly vague and was mostly about the actual process of birth.  The nurses information was good, but not a very comfortable environment or “open” atmosphere.  Our role as expecting parents was to sit and listen.  At bump camp, we were able to talk, ask questions and feel comfortable in a conversation fostering environment.  I’m glad I took the class at the health centre for information purposes, however, bump camp offers topics that are more modern as well as medical and ones that were more helpful.  For example, the lactation class, daddy class, baby wearing and cloth diapering were all awesome topics that were not discussed by the health unit prenatal classes.”

We could not be more thrilled to hear such positive feedback. For those who are birthing at the hospital, we absolutely recommend taking the course through the hospital, as it will provide you with valuable information to guide you during your labour and familiarize you with the facility. But should you want something fun and unique that covers a wide range of topics, that is what we do.

And of course, we love our Daddy class where we get to give Dads the real deal on what to expect…the good the bad and the ugly.  Communication between partners is so essential during the first year and we wanted to take a light-hearted approach to an area that isn’t always discussed before the new arrival. You know that baby is coming and it will be wonderful and you will be sleep deprived, but there can be so many ups and downs and the two of you may see things differently. And to get parents laughing and opening up about this stuff is so wonderful, as opposed to it coming up when Mommy and Daddy are both exhausted at 3:00 in the morning.

So thank you for voting us best prenatal class in Edmonton! We love getting to know each of our couples and their bumps, and wish each of you the best with the new additions to your nest.

And although we have taken the summer off for Bump Camp, we are super excited to announce we will have Mini Bump Camps running sometime in the next month or two. These will be a single evening class that covers one or two of our most popular Bump Camp topics. Stay tuned for more details!!

xoxo

jen