Multiple Births Canada and Mount Sinai Hospital's Multiple Birth DVD Project  (August 2006)

Focus Group Questionnaire - Right click, choose Save Target As and save on your computer under a different name (MS Word document).

Multiple Births Canada is pleased to announce that we have forged a partnership with Mount Sinai Hospital to produce an educational video/DVD for parents expecting multiple-birth children.  It is anticipated that this DVD will become a valuable educational resource for prenatal educators, parenting groups, and individual families.  The initial work in the partnership will focus on learner needs assessment to ensure that the DVD content meets the needs of our intended audience, and on fundraising to cover the costs of the DVD development. 

If you are interested in making a financial contribution to the project, please forward your cheque to:

Multiples DVD Project

Maternal Infant Program

Mount Sinai Hospital

600 University Avenue

Toronto, ON

M5G 1X5

A charitable donation receipt will be made available for all donations.

Good Beginnings Volunteer Program
NOTE:  Due to lack of sustainability funding Good Beginnings in the Region of Peel  is no longer operational.

VON Peel Branch, in partnership with Multiple Births Canada, is proud to offer this exciting new Volunteer Program to residents of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon). The Good Beginnings Volunteer Program is designed to assist parents who have arrived home with a healthy baby (or babies), and are feeling overwhelmed. Volunteers for this program appreciate the difficulty of adjusting to a new baby at home and would like to help families. Families are matched with a volunteer who will visit each week for a minimum of 3 hours, for 3 months, to provide practical assistance under the direction of the parent. Parents of multiple birth children are eligible to receive a volunteer visitor for 6 hours a week for a three-month period once each year until the children turn three years of age.

Volunteers can make a significant difference to families with young children and bring valuable skills that can validate or complement the parent's skills. Caring volunteers can enhance the development of a secure, loving, and positive relationship between infants and their parents. Volunteer visitors can help parents and babies have Good Beginnings by providing support and encouragement through the promotion of healthy infant development, the provision of hands on assistance to create a stimulating environment, assistance with infant care, and/or helping parents participate in recreational activities in the community.

All volunteers undergo a screening process (which includes a police record search and reference checks), an orientation session, and training before proceeding to be matched with a family. In addition to the volunteer training provided by VON Peel, volunteers, as well as families, are invited to attend the following workshops (unfortunately, no childcare is available during these workshops):

Volunteers Can:

• Hold, sing to, read, and play with the infant and/or sibling (s)
• Provide an opportunity for the parent to spend quality time with one child, while volunteer attends to the other child (ren) (Parents must remain in the home with the volunteer)
• Assist the family in participating in community programs and outings (local Ontario Early Years Centres, the library, the YMCA, the park, swimming, etc.)
• Help with general infant care under the direct supervision of the parent; bathing, diapering, and feeding (unless the baby has a feeding or swallowing problem, as volunteers have not been trained to feed infants with medical problems)
• Increase parent's awareness of all services and supports available in the community

Volunteers Can Not:

• Administer ANY medication (including over-the-counter medication such as Children's Tylenol or cough syrup), give medical treatments (including activities such as cutting the infant's nails) or give health/medical advice
• Drive a vehicle for the purpose of client family transportation, though they may accompany the parent and child (ren) in the parent's car, in a taxi, or on the bus. The volunteer must not be the one to secure the child (ren) in their car seat(s)
• Attend to child (ren) without the presence of parents (parents must be at home at all times and direct and supervise the volunteer's activities)
• Bring their own children or other family members or friends to the visit
• Do household chores
• Physically discipline or restrain any child
• Accept gifts or money

Availability of Volunteer Resources:

Matches are made with families subject to volunteer availability. Volunteers are not placed on a first come first served basis.

Referrals are accepted from:

• Peel Health's “Healthy Babies Healthy Children” Program
• Multiple Births Canada, Mississauga Parents of Multiple Births Association, and Twins Plus Brampton
• Parents of multiple birth children may request a volunteer request form by calling 905-821-3254, ext. 2008 or 2006
• VON
• Other Community Organizations

How to Apply:

For more information or to get an application, please call 905-821-3254, ext 2008 or 2006.

Back to Prenatal Resources

V@O Volunteer Orientation and Training Websites

Multiple Births Canada, in partnership with Perinatal Bereavement Services of Ontario (PBSO), received funding in April 2002 to develop web sites, specific to each of our organizations, which will provide orientation and training to volunteers through a video streaming web site and an interactive discussion area. Using the knowledge gained from the development of PBSO's Orientation section (the test site), Multiple Births Canada's Orientation and Training web sites have been completed. The project funding period was from April 1, 2002 to April 1, 2004.

Visit MBC's Volunteer Training Section

Visit MBC's Interactive Discussion Forum


MBC/PBSO video streaming web sites are:

• Personal enough to make volunteers feel like they belong to a dynamic organization.
• User friendly enough to be managed by an individual (Volunteer Coordinator) in the home office.
• Simple enough that the average individual with minimal computer e-mail skills and equipment can utilize it.
• Accessible enough to accommodate the potential volunteer's time schedule.
• Interactive enough to allow assessment of volunteer readiness.

Goals of the video streaming web site and interactive Discussion Area

At the end of the orientation a volunteer will:

• Have a clear understanding of origins, mission and services of the organization.
• Be aware of the scope of volunteer opportunities within the organization.
• Be aware of where the volunteer fits within the organizational structure
• Feel a connection to the organization
• Be aware of their own feelings about their readiness to volunteer

• Have a clear understanding of the expectations of their volunteer role.
• Be aware of how their own grief/multiple experience affects their role as a support person.
• Feel confident in their understanding of the "support" role based on the knowledge of basic grief theory, group dynamics and listening theory.
• Have made contact with staff and/or volunteers involved in their volunteer role through the interactive discussion area
• Be aware of the limitations in their volunteer role and who their support contact in the organization is.

• They provide the direct support services
• They represent the organization to communities outside the home office area