Parent Care Program

Offering mental health support to parents of preemies.

Each year, 30,000 preterm babies are born in Canada, beginning an emotional and challenging journey for parents and their families. These families face immediate medical challenges and long-term emotional struggles, which can linger long after leaving the NICU.

The numbers are staggering:

26% of mothers report anxiety
40% struggle with depression
30% experience posttraumatic stress, including fathers

As time moves on, the initial wave of support often fades, leaving families feeling isolated and in need of long-term care. That’s why CPBF is committed to standing by families every step of the way.

This is why CPBF has created the Parent Care Program.

Parent Care, a program providing professional mental health support, free to eligible families.

"NICU parents often talk about how isolating it is to be in the NICU, and how hard it is to find someone who understands. We designed the Parent Care program to meet the mental health needs of these families, and to help them feel less alone.”

"When we connect with families in our Parent Care program, they share their stories, they explore their feelings, and they begin the process of reclaiming their experience and identities. These sessions can be profoundly transformational and can set families up for a lifetime of more confident parenting.”

“By supporting parents’ emotional well-being, we are actually prioritizing children’s physical and emotional development.”

Support Group for Graduate NICU Families (For Ontario Only)

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Preemie Parent Collective

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Support Group for Graduate NICU Families
(For Ontario Only)

Meeting Thursdays at 10 AM EST for 6 weeks, this group is for parents whose babies have been home for at least 2 months.

Kelley Hassanpour

Registration is open for 2025.

Having a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit can be an extremely isolating experience. This 6-week, closed therapy group will connect you with others with similar lived experiences. You will learn about common experiences during and after a NICU stay, including Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders, Trauma and Grief and develop strategies and tools for coping.

The group is facilitated by Christine Cunningham a Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional and RSSW, currently working as a therapist in private practice with a focus on people in the perinatal period experiencing mental health issues and Kelley Hassanpour, a Registered Nurse & Psychotherapist with over 15 years’ experience working in the NICU, as well as education in Infant & Early Child Mental Health & Perinatal Mental Health.

The objectives of this group are:

Normalize NICU experiences
Understand what happened in the NICU
Learn to trust yourself and your parenting abilities
Recognize the signs & symptoms of a Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorder
Develop tools to manage fear, anxiety, and depression
Understand the signs and symptoms of trauma and grief and develop coping strategies
Receive peer support from other families who have had similar lived experience

Eligibility Criteria:

Baby must have been discharged from the NICU a minimum of 2 months ago
This group is not suitable for bereaved parents (*case by case basis in incidence of a surviving multiple)
This group is open to Ontario Residents as per College regulations.

Details:

Group runs Thursdays at 10am EST for 1.5 hours online
Runs for 6 weeks

Kelley - @parenting_from_within_

or via email: parentingfromwithin@outlook.com

Preemie Parent Collective

A 6-week virtual support group designed for Canadian residents whose babies have been discharged from the NICU within the last 2 years

Kieran Powers

The Preemie Parent Collective is a one-of-a-kind community for parents of preemies, combining Grief & Trauma Coaching and peer support. Over the 6-Week program you will build a community of people who "get it" and receive support to help you find practical and realistic ways to process your experience and manage your mindset in a way that honours the hard stuff while finding a path forward.

The group is facilitated by Kieran Powers, a fellow preemie parent and a certified Grief & Trauma Coach who supports families navigating premature birth, NICU experiences, pregnancy and infant loss, medical parenting, and fertility journeys.

The Preemie Parent Collective Includes:

1 x 2-hour kick off call
5 x 60 minute group coaching sessions,
1 x 60 minute one-on-one coaching session
Private WhatsApp community for support between sessions

Bio:

Kieran is a certified Grief and Trauma Coach and the proud mom of three sons, including two preemies. Beckett was born at 23 weeks in 2017 and tragically passed away in his parents’ arms after a short but fierce fight. Lincoln was born in 2018 at just 22 weeks and spent four and a half months on the NICU rollercoaster. He is now in Grade 1! Little brother Remy was born full term via surrogacy in 2022.

We thank Bell for making this program possible.

Connected Clinicians

Meet our group of clinicians from our previous Individual Therapy Program. Each clinician is a perinatal mental health professional, familiar with the challenges faced by parents of premature babies. Though this program is no longer funded by CPBF, you can still connect with these dedicated experts for private therapy sessions to support your journey.