will offer pertinent information to parents regarding the expected developmental milestones their child should achieve in their early years. in Doha. Her goal is to connect with new parents and hopefully empower them to have a more joyful journey into parenthood and beyond.
Amber Smith
“ I have grown up to understand that it is important to connect with the community. Volunteering gives a deeper, more meaningful addition to one’ s life. Investing in your community just seems to reap many benefits for all. It makes you feel good and you meet many good friends along the way”
Anahi Brown
“ We need a more honest and open conversation around the realities of parenting and family life, especially as expats. And we need more truth and support platforms from a place of vulnerability”
Kimberley Sheedy
“ Whether you are expecting your first baby, expecting again or expecting multiple babies, having knowledge will equip and facilitate your experience and give you greater enjoyment of your children”
40 Society
CDC Director of Operations, Akansha Trigunayat says,“ This Pregnancy & Parenting initiative is a wonderful way of bringing together an entire suite of services and information to help expecting parents. In addition to supporting a family’ s learning process about their baby, our area of work also focuses on identification of any red flags parents must look out for in the first twelve months in order to seek early intervention should any discrepancies be observed.”
University of Calgary’ s Amber Smith, Paediatric nursing instructor with a Masters in Nursing, is a guest speaker at the workshop. Her presentation will help parents understand“ why is my baby crying?”. She says,“ I have grown up to understand that it is important to connect with the community. Volunteering gives a deeper, more meaningful addition to one’ s life.” Amber believes it’ s important to share her expertise with others.“ As parents,” she notes,“ we all want to do better and give the best possible start to our children. I believe when you know better, you do better. This event is an opportunity to work with others around a shared interest to help families be better informed so they can make better decisions when it comes to childbearing and childrearing. Investing in your community just seems to reap many benefits for all. It makes you feel good and you meet many good friends along the way.”
Anahi Brown, Holistic Wellness Coach, is the local coordinator in Qatar of a support group for mothers struggling with antenatal and postnatal depression called“ Out of the Blues.” This group has won several awards in the UAE for the work done to support mothers and families and help them recover. In 2015, Anahi won an“ Ooredoo Shero” award for her service to the community. Anahi jumped at the chance to speak at the Pregnancy & Parenting workshop. She stated that events like these are needed in Doha as a way to connect parents and practitioners and to create a supportive community that can help families grow and develop happily
“ In a high turnover place like Qatar with so many different cultures and nationalities working and living together, it’ s very easy to feel isolated and new parents tend to feel it the most. When I work with a mother and I support her in building herself together and feeling empowered and in control I feel an enormous sense of satisfaction. My“ why” is precisely to ignite Women’ s Empowerment to change the world and nothing helps more than doing so by supporting mothers.” says Anahi. She believes we need a more honest and open conversation around the realities of parenting and family life, especially as expats.“ We need more truth and support platforms from a place of vulnerability.”
Akansha Trigunayat says,“ We are all motivated to help parents. But we are limited in what we can do alone. Generating awareness, spreading knowledge and sharing information within the community is part of our mission at CDC. If we are able to participate in initiatives like this, which work towards a common goal of greater access and improved quality of services across all areas that impact health and education, it drives progress and growth at a far greater level. It is a mammoth task to bring about reforms, policies and awareness. Working together with our collaborators in the community is one step in bringing about this change. Qatar has made tremendous progress in establishing health and educational reforms. However, there is always more work to be done!”
Starfish Lane Kid’ s Sheedy believes parent education workshops provide an essential foundation for expectant parents and positions new families for success.“ Whether you are expecting a first baby, expecting again or expecting multiple babies, having knowledge will equip and facilitate your experience and give you greater enjoyment of your children. We are very excited about this non-profit event coming in March. We are extremely grateful to the speakers and to Pampers for their sponsorship, both without which this event would not have been possible.”