Life with a Newborn Workshop

Preparing Yourself to Trust Yourself

A practical prenatal workshop on breastfeeding, baby sleep and life with a newborn.

You’ve prepared for the birth. But what about the days and weeks that follow?

How will you know breastfeeding is going well? What does normal newborn sleep look like? And how do you find your feet as a parent when everyone seems to have different advice?

Take a breath. You don’t need to have all the answers before your baby arrives.

This workshop helps you and your partner understand your baby, prepare for the changes ahead and build confidence in your own judgement. It’s designed to complement your birth preparation classes, with space for the breastfeeding and early parenting topics that deserve more than a quick mention.

*Already welcomed your baby? The information can also help you make sense of what you’re experiencing.

Knowledge that helps you trust yourself

Getting to know your baby takes time. So does getting to know yourself as a parent.

Understanding how breastfeeding works, what newborns need and how your own brain adapts to parenthood can help you approach those early weeks with realistic expectations and practical tools.

Trusting yourself includes asking questions, recognising when something doesn’t feel right and getting skilled support when you need it.

The first hours and days matter.

The first hours and days after birth are an important time for establishing breastfeeding. Immediate, uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact helps your baby follow their instinctive feeding behaviours, while frequent, effective feeding helps establish your milk supply.

Understanding this before your baby arrives means you can prepare for those first feeds and know what support to ask for.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how to support your baby’s first breastfeed, why colostrum matters, what feeding can look like in the early days and how to recognise whether your baby is feeding effectively. We’ll also discuss ways to protect your milk supply if you and your baby are separated or feeding is initially difficult.

You and your partner will leave knowing what can help, what deserves attention and when to ask for skilled support.

If your beginning is more complicated, there is still plenty we can do to support breastfeeding. Those early hours matter, and ongoing care and support matter too.

What we’ll explore

• Getting breastfeeding off to a good start: Understand how milk production works, your baby’s instinctive feeding behaviours and the biomechanics of comfortable, effective breastfeeding. Learn what to look for and when to seek help.
• Making sense of newborn sleep: Explore biologically normal infant sleep, how sleep and feeding connect, and ways to support your baby’s rhythms while caring for your own need for rest.
• Getting to know your baby: Learn about newborn behaviour, feeding and comfort cues, and how closeness and responsive care help you build a relationship with your baby.
• Your changing parental brain: Discover how becoming a parent can change the way you think, feel and respond—and how understanding these changes can help you be kinder to yourself and each other.
• Connection in the first 1,000 days: Explore how everyday interactions support your baby’s developing brain and your growing relationship, without the pressure to get every moment “right”.
• Looking after yourselves as parents: Prepare for the adjustment with practical ways to share the load, communicate your needs and make sense of conflicting advice.

Why learn with me?

I’m Pip—a registered midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and certified childbirth and early parenting educator, NDC-accredited health professional, SParental Brain Educator and a mum of 4 with more than 20 years’ experience supporting families.

I’m also a Baby Friendly Health Initiative (BFHI) assessor, assessing how maternity hospitals and services meet recognised standards for breastfeeding support and care for mothers and babies. I bring this knowledge into my workshops to help you understand the care that supports breastfeeding from the very first hours, the questions you can ask, and the support you deserve.

My approach brings together current research, practical experience and an understanding of the realities of life with a new baby. It alos draws on my Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC/Possums) accreditation, Sleep, Baby & You educator training, Parental Brain Educator training and ongoing studies towards a postgraduate diploma in lactology.

We’ll explore breastfeeding, sleep, infant development and parental wellbeing together, as these are so closely connected. There’s space to ask questions, make sense of conflicting advice and think about what matters to you as parents.

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of what to expect, practical ideas to draw on and more confidence to make decisions that fit your baby, your circumstances and your values.

Ready to prepare for life with your newborn?

Join us to learn, ask questions and give yourselves time to think about the parents you want to become.

Book your place at the next workshop.

Private health rebates

You may be eligible for a private health insurance rebate, depending on your fund and level of cover. Before booking, please check whether your policy covers antenatal education provided by a registered midwife, the rebate available and any documentation required.

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