Our Story

Childbirth Education Association of Metropolitan New York was founded in 1972 on a mission to enable expanded access to quality childbirth education. Our founders, Doris Haire and Dorothea Lange, internationally known consumer advocates in the field of childbearing fought to change the rules and allow midwives and other childbirth professionals to provide quality childbirth education to their communities.

CEA/MNY continues to advocate for the expansion of childbirth education resources in all communities. Through our scholarship programs, we empower the next generation of birth advocates to bring childbirth education to their communities. We also advocate on behalf of undersupported communities, educating our students about birth disparities and fighting for birth justice for all.

Cooperative Childbirth Education

Rather than following more narrow methodologies like Lamaze or the Bradley Method, CEA/MNY teaches a more holistic approach to childbirth known as Cooperative Childbirth Education (CCE).

CCE classes were developed entirely by people who experienced pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Because of this crucial difference, CCE emphasize the uniqueness of each person’s life experience and how it impacts their labor and birthing process. No single "method" is taught, but rather, individuals and their partners are encouraged to draw upon their own innate strengths and intuition in order to allow birth to reach its transforming potential.

CCE supports childbirth as a normal, natural, physiological process and encourages people to recognize their ability to cope successfully with the challenges of labor and birth. CCE's first priority is a concern for maternal and infant health— instruction focuses on issues surrounding childbirth rather than promoting particular methods of giving birth. In these classes, pregnant families learn information on anatomy and physiology of pregnancy, labor and birth, natural methods to cope with labor, nutrition, obstetric procedures and drugs, as well as breastfeeding and newborn care.