COUPLES WORKSHOP

Bringing Baby Home

In preparing to bring a baby home, there are many educational resources aimed at maternal and baby health. What seems to be missed as couples prepare for this major life transition are the skills and resources to help them navigate the changes that parenthood inevitably brings to their relationship.

Research shows that 2/3 of couples experience a significant reduction in marital satisfaction and a significant increase in conflict after the birth of their baby.

The goal of this workshop is to equip you with the knowledge and skill sets needed to constructively cope with the various changes that typically occur during the first three years after your baby is born.

This workshop is perfect for those who are interested in having a baby, expecting a baby, or already parenting an infant or toddler (age 0-3).

Research-based.
Research-tested.

The Bringing Baby Home (BBH) workshop is a research-based and research-tested psychoeducational workshop designed by renowned relationship and parenting experts Dr. John and Julie Gottman. This workshop is aimed at improving the quality of life for babies and children by strengthening their families and evolved from Dr. Gottman’s over 50 years of marriage and family research.

What you’ll learn.

  • Increase friendship and connection in the relationship

  • Deal effectively with conflict

  • Reduce hostility and resentment in times of stress

  • Involve each parent / caregiver in infant care and parenting

  • Improve the quality of parent-infant interaction

  • Recognize the psychological and emotional needs of their child

  • Workshop Details

    6-week online course. 12 hours total. Group format.
    Next workshop dates to be announced

    $700+GST per couple including workbook and materials

    See session topics below

Session Outline

  • • Understanding common challenges of the transition to parenthood

    • Sound Relationship House theory

    • Building closeness by understanding how to build Love Maps with your partner and children

  • • Identify the killers of relationships and what to do instead

    • Understanding the importance of and increasing fondness and admiration for one another

    • Understanding Bids and Turning Toward your partner and baby

    • Apply the concept of an Emotional Bank Account to create relationship satisfaction

  • • How to create a culture of appreciation within your family unit

    • Understand common themes of conflict in a relationship

    • Learn how to support each other by introducing the daily Stress-Reducing Conversation to the relationship

  • • Recognize the signs of physiological flooding and understand the impact of fighting around children

    • Learn to apply Self-Soothing techniques in the relationship

    • Learn to recognize the four warning signs of relationship meltdown

    • Identify and practice the four steps of constructive problem solving and how to achieve compromise

  • • Explore our individual parenting needs and desires and examine personal parenting and family rituals

    • Build awareness of personal history with parents, caregivers, or influential adults and how this affects our experience of being a new parent

    • Understand the importance of co-parents as important to the family unit

    • Learn to recognize postpartum depression and factors that may prevent it

  • • Understand the pivotal importance of the first year of a child’s life and how to create a positive parent-child relationship for the child’s future success

    • Understand common changes in intimacy for new parents and how to nurture sex and romance in the relationship

    • Learn to create shared meaning as a new family and recognize common goals and values

    • Learn about common traps leading to increased invisible work, burnout related to an unequitable mental load, and partner resentment

Join the waitlist and get notified about upcoming workshops

FAQs

  • The transition to parenthood can be beautiful but it has been routinely described as one of the toughest changes we may encounter in life. Truly solid couples with great relationships often find themselves turning against one another when sleep deprivation and stress sets in. Facing the unique challenges of parenthood tends to bring out some of the worst in us, and we can fall into unhelpful patterns that are hard to shake. The Bringing Baby Home workshop offers tangible tools to shift patterns, create shared plans for navigating problems, and develop a strengthened friendship that can be resilient to the future ahead of you. The tools you will learn are grounded in the specific findings from decades of relationship research and are proven to be effective.

  • Having a baby is an expensive undertaking, I get it! I believe one of the best investments we can make for our future and children is in our partnership. Parents often pour significant investment into preparing for a new baby: think pre-natal classes, infant care classes and parenting courses to prepare for all that is to come. We also go out and buy the safest car seat, best stroller and all the latest gear. But consider the one thing that will remain consistent in your child’s life is you and your partner. The relationship we have with our partner has the capacity to make the transition to parenthood full of delight, support, and closeness! Unfortunately, it can also make this experience full of resentment, disappointment, and isolation. Your relationship will be the model for your child's future relationships. It can offer a sense of safety and stability to your children, and should also offer this to each of you. Like anything, if we value something enough we can often find a way to make it happen.

  • Dr. John and Julie Gottman are two of the world’s leading psychologists and researchers on marriage and relationships. The Gottman Institute is an internationally renowned organization dedicated to building strong relationships and repairing troubled ones. They have conducted over 50 years of breakthrough research with thousands of couples. They are known for taking their academic research and converting their findings into practical tools and strategies for real couples to create meaningful change. They have taken all they've learned about couples transitioning to parenthood (each baby is a new transition) and created the Bringing Baby Home program from their findings. This program has been proven to reduce the incidence of divorce and is even correlated with a lower incidence of progressive symptoms of postpartum depression (22.5% compared to 66.5% in the control group).