The Gottman Bringing Baby Home program
Becoming a parent changes who we are and what is important to us.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to know what to expect, to have tools to deal with the changes, and to have time set aside to understand our partner’s needs and feelings?
Bringing Baby Home
The Gottman Institute's research-based Bringing Baby Home workshops prepare couples for life with a baby and help them be the best parenting team possible. In a relaxed and supportive environment, parents learn to strengthen their relationship and foster their baby’s development. They build on what Dr. Gottman and colleagues found is the best predictor of marital adjustment after a new baby arrives: the quality of friendship in the marriage. When babies grow up in a home with a positive, playful parenting team, they feel safe and nurtured and available to learn. They cry less, they smile more, and their parents' cooperation helps them to pay better attention during play time so that they get more out of it.
Couples who have participated in the program:
Were more satisfied in their relationship and were more likely to stay together
Were better prepared to bring their baby home
Were more able to work together in family play and in co-parenting, with greater father involvement and more secure father-infant attachment
Benefits for children:
Had stronger language skills
Smiled and laughed more during family play at 3 and 12 months of age
The workshop is best taken before or during pregnancy (preferably second trimester), but it can be taken anytime after baby is born. Pre-crawling babies are welcome.
When should we take the Bringing Baby Home class?
I have taught Bringing Baby Home classes to young couples and families in a variety of life stages—considering parenthood, expecting a baby, or with an infant or toddler at home. Bringing Baby Home is focused on building rituals of connection that will last the lifetime of your relationship. It is applicable whether it is your first baby or you have other children at home. However, the earlier you take the class, the more time and energy you have to practice the material before you need it. If you are expecting a baby, keep in mind that the second trimester of pregnancy is often the easiest time to take the class because new mothers often have more energy and less morning sickness during the second trimester.
Where do you teach?
Right now due to COVID-19 I am teaching Bringing Baby Home online until at the least the end of December 2021.
Our family recently moved to Auburn, California from the South San Francisco Bay Area. I look forward to being able to teach the class here in Auburn. In the past I have taught Bringing Baby Home at Harmony in Campbell, CA. I have also held my classes at ConnectEd in San Jose, California; the South Bay Homebirth Collective in San Jose, California; and Blossom Birth in Palo Alto, California. Families have come from near and far to join my classes, including San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont, Los Gatos, South San Francisco, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Foster City, Pacifica, and Gilroy. I taught my first Bringing Baby Home couple in Redlands, California in 2015, and I have been teaching regularly since then. A number of couples have taken the class after recently moving to Silicon Valley from as far away as the east coast. Other couples have traveled to San Jose from Nevada and from Colorado to join my weekend classes.
"...[The Bringing Baby Home class] was a great experience and [we] will recommend it to new parents... It was great to share our stories and thoughts with the group in hopes that if it happens to them, they know they aren’t alone." -Mother of an 18-month old [More]
"Most classes focus on baby baby baby but this course equally addresses the two people that made the baby!" - Father of a newborn [More]
"...We are closer than ever and really got great benefit from your class." - Parent of an 18-month old [More]
“I enjoy the honesty of the class. It is very easy to share what is going on and it feels very much like a safe space.”
