• Focus on: Another Baby

• Focus on: Baby Gear

• Focus on: Bonding

For more information, please visit the The Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study website at www.canadianchildstudy.ca.

Visit the Mother Infant Wellness Lab at http://www.motherinfantwellness.ca/research-infant-sounds.html for more information.

The purpose of this study is to find out if providing information on the typical features of infant crying can reduce frustration and other distressing thoughts and feelings in first-time parents when they hear an infant crying. This will be accomplished by having all participants listen to an audio recording of an infant crying while continuously rating their level of frustration. Following this, we will ask our participants to complete a final questionnaire in which we ask about a range of emotional responses they may have had to the tape recorded sounds as well as strategies they think would help to sooth a crying infant or to help them cope with infant crying. We are also asking them about any unwanted thoughts of harm, related to the infant, that they may have experienced while listening to the tape recorded sounds.

At the conclusion of the study participants are provided with a $5 Starbucks gift card in appreciation of their time as well as parent educational materials about infant crying (The Period of PURPLE Crying DVD). We hope that this study will help us to understand maternal responses to infant crying and allow us to better help new mothers as they cope with infant crying.

• Focus on: Multiples

Aleksandra Henderson

The miracle of birth has made an everlasting impact on Aleksandra’s life and for this simple reason she chose to become a doula and prenatal class instructor. Her aim is to make birth an experience rather than a process.

A mother of three, she has been a doula since 1996 and in that time has attended over seventy births. In 1998 she finished her training as a Childbirth Educator through Vancouver Community College and has been teaching for Lower Mainland Childbearing since then.

She currently teaches all of Childbearing’s weekend workshops out of her home, as well as taking on the occasional evening series and the training of new teachers. Her enthusiasm for birth is contagious, and she receives rave reviews from her prenatal class participants and doula clients alike.

Stephanie Ondrack

Registrar, Secretary, Instructor, Newsletter Content Editor

Stephanie’s interest in birth began with the birth of her own first child in 2001. With an academic background in English Literature and Women’s Studies, Stephanie attained certification as a Birth Doula and as a Childbirth Educator through Douglas College in 2002. She has been pursuing the topic with passion ever since, attending conferences, reading journals, and constantly upgrading her knowledge.

Stephanie is honoured to cross paths with so many families at such a pivotal juncture in their lives. As the mother of three children, she is personally familiar with the unpredictable nature of pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. Her goal is to help empower parents to make their own best choices according to their own circumstances and beliefs, and to help promote the best possible experience for the new baby within that context. She believes that the birth of a baby can be a joyful and transcending experience for the whole family, made better with accurate information and a sense of confidence. Stephanie’s enthusiasm and compassion shine through in her teaching, as does her genuine love of the topics.