Looking for a prenatal class in Vancouver Lower Mainland that isn’t boring, way too long or full of gendered language? Don’t want to spend a whole weekend sitting on terrible plastic chairs, in a cold unfriendly environment? We don’t either so we created a class just for you! Every month, Emma and the Brood crew cozy up to chat about pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum. We are now offering prenatal classes in 3 locations across the city – North Vancouver, Vancouver’s West Side and East Vancouver. Join us, with your partner(s) and support team.
Our prenatal class was developed by doulas and educators, and peer-reviewed by a Clinical Advisory Board made up of doctors, therapists, midwives, nurses and parents with lived experience.
When you attend Brood’s Prenatal in a Day you can expect us to guide you in understanding the following:
→ The role of care providers and wellness practitioners.
→ Labors rhythms and phases.
→ Physical, emotional and relational impacts of pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
→ How your support team can nurture you through birth and into parenthood.
→ Preparing for postpartum and parenthood.
→ The basics of parent-led feeding (nursing and bottle guidance).
→ Ending with Q & A time with a birth & postpartum doula!
And we can guarantee our classes are always:
→ Evidence-based: Peer reviewed by experts, using fact based studies.
→ Accessible & Flexible: This class is customised depending on the group and families in attendance.
→ Expansive: Gender-affirming content, infused with lived-expertise.
→ Reflective: We use a trauma informed approach to learning.
→ Joyful: All the energy and supportive community feels!
So what does the Brood Prenatal in a Day actually look like?
Brood’s class is led by Emma Devin (they/them), one of Canada’s leading full-spectrum doulas with over a decade of experience as a caregiver. Everything Emma does is born from the intersection of their lived experience caring for families, their identity as a queer person, and their passion to make care work sustainable and legitimised. As a leader in the doula community in Canada, Emma is proud to be at the forefront of ensuring that health services move towards including language and care that is safe for all birthing people and all kinds of family structures. Emma is joined by at least one of Brood’s care team members, offering another voice and someone with lived expertise as either a parent or doula.
The classes themselves are hosted in community spaces, and the groups are kept to a smaller size in order to provide more time for connection and reflection.
We always start our sessions with a group check-in so we can create relationships, build trust and get a good understanding of everyone’s knowledge base and lived experience. By understanding a bit more about who you are, your pregnancy journey, current care and support teams, we are able to customise this prenatal to each family and each prenatal group. It’s part of what makes Brood’s Prenatal in a Day different from other classes!
The content covered can bring up a lot of emotions and different feelings for everyone – and we are here to support you through it. Here is a quick overview of the basic topics we cover:
- The role of care providers and wellness practitioners. A full run down on the role of care providers and wellness practitioners. We will go over in what capacity these folks can support you, and how to stack your care team for ultimate support.
- Labor & Birth. Here we discuss the stories of birth we’ve been told, and how they affect our perceptions of birth. We walk through the phases of labor, optimal fetal positioning, and a C-section run down! This is also the time where we talk about the different ways to cope during labor and how to build your toolkit of resources.
- Physical, emotional and relational impacts of pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Physical, emotional and relational impacts of pregnancy, birth and postpartum, like how your support team can nurture you through birth and into parenthood.
- Prenatal Postpartum Prep. Preparing for postpartum and parenthood ahead of time! In this section we discuss how parts of your conception and pregnancy journeys might impact your postpartum. We talk about your environment and support structure and how we can improve that ahead of your birth and create your community of care. We walk through boundary setting, and physical preparations like antenatal hand expression and more.
- Postpartum, week-by-week. Many prenatal classes and education focus heavily on the birth itself, so here we focus heavily on what to expect during the 4th trimester. From the physical, mental, and relational aspects like hormone changes and the baby blues, to perineum care and newborn normals. We talk about the basics of parent-led feeding (nursing and bottle guidance), sleep support and healing from pregnancy.
We then end with a Q&A with our care team and a postpartum doula! This is a space where you can ask any and all questions privately or to the group.
Alongside this 5 hour in-person class, you will have free access to a bundle of Brood’s online courses (which include our Pregnancy, Birth & Right After, Postpartum & the 4th Trimester, and Feeding & Your Baby courses) to learn in your home, at your own pace — a value of $168! And so you can stay connected to all things Brood, you will also get access to our Family Membership — from all of our educational resources to our referrals and recommendations — to our community and fellow parents in attendance.
We hope you’ll come learn more with us! For more information on locations, dates and times, visit our eventbrite page.
Still not sure? Hear what our community has to say!
“Their vibe is Care and Love. Our family if so thankful to have the amazing squad at Brood in our corner and as a critical foundation to our parenting journey. The people at Brood are extremely experienced, trained and knowledgable – all tied with a bow of genuine deep care which came through in their questions and well considered answers. We had an opportunity to engage in their Prenatal in a Day workshop and found the content was differentiated from all the books we read, as they were able to go deep into any areas of curiosity of the families in attendance and share through the BC MSP lens of experience.” — Mike & Adam
“Amazing amazing experience! My partner and I had the pleasure of attending the Brood Prenatal in a Day. The class was so incredibly informative that we might even feel a little too confident going into labor and delivery (if that is even possible). Thank you for all of your hard work! We are so grateful for you.” — Zoe
