"...she was also always available by phone to provide support.."

Andrea Hoffman, B.Sc.H, M.D.

I had the great pleasure of participating in Sandi Cole’s After Baby Comes course.   As a pediatric resident I’m well versed in caring for sick children in the hospital.  However, I learned quickly after my own baby came that I knew little about the day to day care of a newborn and how to manage the commonly encountered challenges.   The topics covered in Sandi’s group were all the ones that I had been struggling with on my own. 

As a new mom I was very nervous and had lots of questions.   Sandi answered them with confidence and with literature to back up her answers.   She was a wealth of knowledge in the areas of postpartum and infant care and I was very impressed that the information provided was so current and up to date.   In her classes she covered a wide range of topics, was very thorough and I greatly appreciated her matter of fact discussion about sensitive topics.   She had great advice for dealing with the common baby issues and the skills that she taught were practical and easy to implement.  I applied many of the strategies she discussed to my own daughter with fantastic results!

Sandi was not only a great resource during the classes but she was also always available by phone to provide support and answers questions that arose between sessions and even after the series of classes was over.  Her dedication to teaching newborn care was evident and she clearly cared about women and babies enrolled in the class.  The classes were held in her home, which was warm, comfortable and inviting.  It was a baby friendly environment with healthy and delicious snacks for the moms.

One of the other benefits of Sandi’s course was the opportunity to connect with other new moms.  It was nice to share stories and talk about both the triumphs and challenges of motherhood with other people who were having similar experiences themselves.  As a group we will remain in touch as friends and as a support network for one another. 

Finally, Sandi provide great written resources.  The handouts were very helpful as a reference and my husband learned a lot by looking through the reading material when I came home from class. It was also really nice to get recommendations and contact information for community programs.   I found that there were so many different ones available that it was hard to know which ones were good.   Sandi was able to provide suggestions about teachers and classes ranging from infant/child CPR, baby massage and private swimming lessons to music, fitness classes, and gyms for moms and babies.

I have to admit that, given my medical background, I was sceptical if I would find Sandi’s classes beneficial.   The answer was clearly yes!  Not only do I feel better equipped to take care of my own daughter but I feel like I have helpful advice and approaches that I can share with my patients too.

I would strongly recommend this course to my colleagues and friends.

Andrea Hoffman