As many members are aware, LWAB is here because I suffered with a postpartum mood disorder after the birth of my darling daughter in 2007.  At first I didn't believe I had a mood disorder because I loved my daughter so much and was so happy to have her and I was convinced that if I was depressed I would not feel so much love for my little girl.  I was wrong.  I wasn't depressed at first, it started out with just being socially isolated after moving to a new area, which progressed to anxiety over the safety and care of my daughter and finally settled into a depression due to marital conflict, boredom, isolation and feeling inadequate as a parent.

There have been many parents who have struggled with a postpartum mood disorder, whether it is depression, anxiety, loneliness, mood swings or the more severe postpartum psychosis but many new moms are ashamed to ask for help due to the stigma around depression.

I still remember when Brooke Shield admitted to postpartum depression and the way society reacted.  Lately more and more celebrities have admitted to postpartum depression including; Courtney Cox, Amanda Peet, Gwyneth Paltrow and many others. 

LWAB would like to bring more awareness not only to the normalcy of having a Postpartum Mood Disorder (PPMD) but also to the support available and creating circles of support and strength for each other through support networks.

If you suffered from a PPMD and found the support offered through the LWAB system helpful in overcoming postpartum challenges we want to hear from you.  We will be going on Rogers Daytime on Tuesday March 8th and we would love for you to share your story with us and with other parents who may be going through a PPMD right now.

Let's work together to remove the stigma so that new moms are not ashamed to ask for help!  We want moms who are going through a difficult transition to know that they can overcome this stage and really enjoy the precious first years!  By sharing your story you may be able to help another mom get the courage she needs to fight her way out and ask for the help she needs.

If you are a dad whose spouse suffered from a PPMD and the support through the dads program was beneficial to you we would love to hear from you as well.

To learn more about postpartum mood disorders you can go to http://lifewithnewbaby.ca/resources/ppmd_bro_mood.pdf

Together we can create circles of support and reduce the negative stigma associated with a PPMD.

Thanks
Claire

LWAB is looking for a program director to start July 2011 for an 8 month contract.

If you are interested in this position please send an email to info@lifewithababy.com be sure to include your resume and cover letter.

Position Description:
Reporting to the board of directors, this position requires a self-motivated, energetic and enthusiastic individual to coordinate events for parents with children 0-6. The program manager will also work closely with the bookkeeper and treasurer to implement sound financial practices that contribute to the efficient and effective operation of the organization including all programs and services. This will be accomplished by performing the following duties and responsibilities:

Event Management
•    Plan and co-ordinate events for all areas and ensure feedbacks are completed and recorded in a timely manner
•    Moderate message board and forum and provide relevant and timely information to questions posted
•    Contact and recruit speakers for managing expectations and parenting confidently programs
•    Administer new membership and renewals ensuring all required fields are correctly filled out
•     Liaise with other related organizations for partnership of programs and for donation of space to run program
•     Respond to inquiries of members and follow up to daily email log
•    Train and supervise program co-ordinators and volunteers

Financial Management
•    Plan and implement the Association’s systems for accounting and financial control to ensure consistent recording and reporting of all fiscal transactions
•     Prepare and monitor the annual budget including all financial forecasts and regular financial reports
•    Coordinate the annual financial audit process
•    In liaison with the treasurer, assist in the preparation of budgets to granting agencies and funders
•     Prepare financial accounting for interim and final grant reports

Related Responsibilities
•    Maintain excellent internal and external communication and customer service
•    Liaise with appropriate staff, Board and committee members as necessary
•    Perform other duties assigned to ensure efficient management of programs / services

Competencies / skills
•    Minimum 5 years of related management experience, especially in not-for-profit sector
•    Minimum 2 years Accounting  or grant writing experience
•    Knowledge of Microsoft Office and Wild Apricot Software is mandatory
•    Knowledge of QuickBooks, good organizational skills and a detail-oriented approach are desirable

We are so happy to have Kathy Buckworth as a strong supporter of the LWAB program!
We are excited about this wonderful opportunity to work with Kathy to continue promoting awareness of the LWAB program to new and expectant parents.

About the wonderful Kathy Buckworth:
Funny Mummy Kathy Buckworth is an award winning writer, television personality and public speaker, with numerous publishing credits in both national and local magazines and newspapers.  Kathy's books credits include “The Secret Life of SuperMom” and "The BlackBerry Diaries: Adventures in Modern Motherhood" and her new book, "Shut Up & Eat: Tales of Chicken, Children & Chardonnay" which is now available.!

Visit Kathy's website at http://kathybuckworth.com to learn more

      It’s voting season. Yes, and it’s pretty hard to miss isn’t it.  Whether you walk or drive, you are bound to see an array of promotional signs at almost every intersection.  Walk around your neighbourhood and the lawn signs are at every turn, so it’s hard to not know that there is an election going on. 

     What election is it?  Well it’s the municipal election and if you have small kids probably one of the most important voting decisions.  With your local mayor or ward councillor you will be able to contact them to ask questions specific to your town.  You can have your local MPP champion your cause and feel like you were heard.  Your local representative is your link to what you want in your community.

     Before I voted, I decided to contact a few of the representative for mayor and since I’m in Vaughan, I contacted the Vaughan candidates.  Now it’s always confusing what is considered Vaughan, from some research Vaughan  include:
•  Woodbridge, Ontario, North/South - Teston/Steeles, East/West - Hwy 400/Hwy 50
• Maple, Ontario, North/South - King Vaughan Line/Rutherford, East/West -   Bathurst/Hwy 400
• Thornhill, Ontario, North/South - Rutherford/Steeles, East/West - Yonge/Dufferin
• Concord, Ontario, North/South - Rutherford/Steeles, East/West - Dufferin/Hwy 400
• Kleinburg, Ontario, North/South - Kirby/Major Mac, East/West - Pine Valley/Hwy 50

     I sent emails or left messages with the question “are families a priority”.  The two candidates that did get back to me are Paul Donofrio, who is running for Mayor of Vaughan and Sandra Yeung Racco who is running to be the councillor for ward 4.  
Mr. Donofrio promises to support families and programs that support families included the Life With a Baby (LWAB) program and to show his commitment to his words, this statement on his website.  He affirms that community support is a very important part of his platform and will work towards this end.  Mrs. Racco is well known in the community for her accomplishments over the 7 years as councillor of ward 4, one of the most recent is the opening of the North Thornhill Community Centre as well as many parks and parklettes in our neighbourhood.  Mrs. Racco re-affirms her continued support of families and issued a press release singling out the LWAB program as one that in important and integral in the community of new parents.
So what does this election mean for you and your family? 

     Personally, I never thought about voting until I had my daughter and now when I think about voting, I am careful in my decision, I make sure that I contact the candidates or read about them on their website. I ask the question: what do are your priorities?  I need to know their priorities because in the long run, this may be the difference between your child growing up in a family oriented environment with parks,  community centres,  local schools and programs that you value or not.  

     So whatever you do on this October, it’s important to vote. Who you vote for is up to you and should be done an in informed manner by researching the candidates and not by whose sign you like more or whose name you can remember.  Ask yourself, do what do they stand for, are families a priority and how will this affect me.
You don’t have to wait until October 25th to vote, you can vote in advance by visiting www.vaughanvotes.ca

     For more information about the candidates in Vaughan that responded to my questions, their websites are below.
www.pauldonofrio.com
http://www.votesandra.ca/

Your vote counts and it does make a difference!

If you're heading down to the CNE, don't forget to drop by the Life with a Baby booth and say hi to Claire. She's at Booth 1037 in the Shoppers Bazaar - Hall A.

LWAB is selling unique personalized gifts. Choose from over 50 different backgrounds and put your own unique message and kid's birthdates on them. The perfect gift for your little munchkins.

Claire Kerr-Zlobin, Joanna Vernik, Kimberly O'Mally were on Rogers Daytime TV to promote Life with a Baby. Watch it here.

Did you that York Region Public Health offer parenting workshops?  Well they do!
Exciting news for new parents in York Region.

The workshops include: Adjusting to the 1st year, Attachment parenting, Growth & development, Infant sleep, and Positive discipline.

These workshops are for parents with infants 0-12 months and are across the Region. Currently, the programs are being offered in Markham, Aurora, Newmarket, Keswick, Woodbridge, Schomberg & Sutton.  The region plans to offer program in more location in upcoming months.  To see the flyer for these workshop and contact information click here

Are you feeling anxious, depressed, or just need additional support? The York Region Community and Health Services department facilitates an educational support
group to help families with the transition during pregnancy or after the birth of a baby.
The Transition to Parenting program is a 12 week program. To see the flyer and contact information click here.

Do you have a child between the ages or 1 and 5?  Nobody's perfect program may be for you.  NOBODY'S PERFECT is offered as a series of six to eight weekly group sessions. The program is built around five colourful, easy-to-read books which are given to the parents free of charge. During the meetings, trained facilitators support participants as they work together to discover positive ways of parenting.
To see the flyer and contact info click here

LWAB is working with Public Health to enhance programs and services for parents in York Region.

On Tuesday, April 20th, our guest speaker was John MacMillan, an experienced family life educator. John has been doing workshops with new parents for our 25 years. 

He spoke about the importance of dad and how a male presence is important in a child's development.  He offered tips on how dad can bond with baby.  Dads' parenting style is different from moms' but babies learn different yet important skills from both.

Some studies have shown that even a three month old baby can already distinguish between the different kind of stimulations that mom and dad give.

How can dad be more involved?  Diapering, bathing and soothing baby are good opportunities to bond.  For the nursing baby, mom can pump milk and dad can feed. This will benefit baby but also dad. Being an involved father can be a source of pride and satisfaction too.

For some of us, our little munchkins are now toddlers. Adorable they are, with their little personalities but they are also at a developmental stage where we may be asking ourselves more and more why is s/he doing that?

Our parenting your toddler workshop is underway and the most common questions were around sleep, tantrums, discipline, crying, potty training, power struggles, TV time and work life balance.

Today our session was about active listening, expectations we place on our toddlers and emotional fitness in children.  We had Holly Kretschmer, Psychotherapist & Parent educator as our guest speaker.

Guess what! I'm a huge fan of active listening. This technique really gives us a chance to communicate with our children and hear how they are feeling.  To demonstrate I've added a few pictures from yesterday.  

You may think those are decorations in my bamboo plant, but no those are cheerios and cantaloupe.  I'm making dinner and Katelyn asks me for water, so I gave her water. I looked over and she is watering the plant... "awww so cute" I thought to myself.  I'm busy preparing dinner and she is at the table supposedly snacking.  about half an hour later I notice there are cheerios and other food in the water.  So I asked her, Katelyn, why you do that?  "I'm feeding the plant mommy, it's hungry" was her reply. I can only assume that since she gives the plant water b/c it's thirsty then giving it food when it's hungry would make sense. I said, "that was nice of you to feed the plant babe, but that is not the type of food it eats".  I saw her mouth making an O then she showed me the other plants she had fed :-)   I asked her to help me clean up the plants to reinforce the idea that we do not leave this type of food in the plant.

My first reaction could have been to think she is destroying the plant or she did this to be bad, but it's really important to try and find out "what" your toddler's behaviour means. Maybe your toddler isn't able to express clearly with their words why they did it, which makes it harder to understand - but chances are they didn't do it to be bad. They may even believe they are doing it to help you and then don't understand why you are upset. 

We also talked about Emotional Fitness and trauma and clarified some information with the group that Trauma is caused by long-term neglect over the life of a person and a single small event will not create long-term trauma. 

Overall a great session, not every technique and philosophy will work for you and your child. We hope to give you information and best practices to use going forward so you can make informed parenting decisions.


Do you have any active listening stories to share?

-Claire

It was an amazing 21 degrees today, and bright and sunny. What a perfect day for a walk! And walk we did. Eight moms with babies in strollers came out and enjoyed a good walk through a route that took us to three parks in the Red Maple and Bantry area-- James Langstaff Park, Russel Farm Park, and Springbrook Park.

The "Park Hop" stroller walk has always been popular and although we visit the same parks, I will occasionally vary the route. If you missed this event, please join us next time.

Next week, we won't be park-hopping but we will be walking in beautiful Mill Pond Park. Check our calendar for details. Come on out. It's a great way to meet new friends, and get to know the parks in your neighbourhood.

See you soon!

Joanna