Bringing Baby Home - Helping Couples become Parents

Parents-to-be often wonder how having baby is going to affect their relationship as a couple. New parents often discover that fostering the relationship between partners gets very little attention when they are coping with the stresses of caring for their babies or toddlers. New parents are often surprised at how difficult it is to keep their relationship healthy while they are trying to learn how to be good parents. What they may not realize is that being a good partner helps you to be a good parent.

The Bringing Baby Home program is a 12-hour workshop based on the research of John Gottman, PhD. The workshop is designed to provide couples with research-based information that can dramatically change the course of their relationship. It gives new and expecting parents the knowledge and skills necessary to cope constructively with the birth of a child. Through lecture, video presentations, group discussions, and planned exercises, couples learn to stay connected as partners, strengthen their friendship, intimacy and conflict regulation skills, foster child development, keep dads involved and build a "Sound Relationship House".

The Bringing Baby Home workshop will be taught for the first time in Victoria at the Mothering Touch Centre. I'm very excited to be offering this course. As a childbirth and breastfeeding educator, I believe there is a great need for support for couples as they become parents. You're going to love the faciliators: counsellor and doula Stephanie Capyk and family therapist Daniel Hughes.  They are joining forces to facilitate the course. Both are certified Gottman Educators, trained at the Relationship Research Institute of Seattle to teach the Bringing Baby Home program.

The Bringing Baby Home course at Mothering Touch will be offered in two formats. There is a six-week course (beginning April 13 - 7:30pm) which parents can register for in advance; and for couples who find it difficult to make that sort of commitment, there are Relationship Tune-Up Date Nights on the last Friday evening of each month (beginning March 25 - 7:30pm).

If you would like to read more about this click here

-Eva

Recipe of the Month

 We at Mothering Touch believe strongly in the 'family meal' - that is, everyone sitting down together and eating (mostly) the same food. In the Recipe of the Month column, I will post food ideas that hopefully the whole family will love. After all, just because we have kids doesn't mean that we have to be relegated to the land of never-ending mac'n'cheese, right?

I've recently become obsessed with Vij's Relax Honey, the new cookbook from the owners of the legendary Vij's restaurant in Vancouver. Here's a recipe adapted from that book that my entire family can't get enough of.

Curried Deviled Eggs

1/4 cup oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 cup thinly sliced red onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup finely chopped tomato

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cumin or garam masala

dash of black pepper

1/4 cup plain yogurt

4-5 hardboiled eggs, cooled to room temperature

Heat the oil in a small pot, and sizzle the cumin seeds for 45 seconds. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic and saute for another minute, until golden. Add the tomatoes and salt, and saute for 4-5 minutes, until the oil glistens on top. Slice the eggs in half and scoop the yolk into a small bowl. Add the yogurt, ground cumin, and pepper, and mix well until smooth. Add the tomato mixture to the yolks and mix well. Scoop this into the egg whites, and serve immediatly or refrigerate, covered, for up to 3 days.

You will probably have some of the mixture left over, and it tastes delicious in a sandwich with some cheese, or scooped onto crackers. Enjoy!

Smooch!

We came across an article the other day in the online journal Birth about the importance, from a health perspective, of kissing your baby. Read more about it here. I loved this article because I love being reminded that we're all just animals, with biological drives that we don't always understand. Our instincts are so important! So go ahead, trust what you feel, and smooch that tiny baby!

Socks for little feet!

We're doing another giveaway! Two lucky winners will each recieve a beautiful gift box of six pairs of Babylegs socks, age 12-24 months! We've got a set of pink ones and a set of blue ones, so in your entry please specify which you are entering for. 

Head on over to our Facebook page, and post a comment telling us what your favourite product at the Mothering Touch Centre is. We'll pick a random winner for each set of socks, and post on Facebook who the winner is on Friday March 11. Good Luck!