The New Child Project is for parents who are expecting a birth child or adoptive child or who already have a young baby.

The New Child Project includes two courses:

Conversations for Coparents

and

Choices in Childbirth

Each is a collection of videos and written materials that you can choose to navigate through as you want.

Conversations on Coparenting is the “newest” in terms of material currently available for couples. It consists of short, interactive videos that will guide you through conversations with your partner as you navigate the many changes that will occur in your lives as you become parents, whether you are birth parents, adoptive parents, or co-partners in some alternative arrangement. This course is designed to help you create the best possible home for your child, which is the relationship between the two of you and any others involved in your child’s care.

Currently, as of March, 2026, Choices in Childbirth is primarily written material.

Courses are free. Voluntary contributions are encouraged so we can support the use of these materials and to help create additional materials.

Dr. Rob Straus, DMH, JD began the New Child Project in 1998 to develop resources for couples becoming parents. It became a course for new parents given at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank, CA designed by Dr. Straus and childbirth educator, Diana Peterson between 2005 and 2016. Versions of this course were given in the Cambridge/Boston area between 2011 and 2016 by Dr. Straus and Lorenza Holt, MPH, Executive Director of BACE-NMC (Boston Association for Childbirth Education – Nursing Mothers’ Council).

 In 2014, the New Child Project course was revised for Children’s Trust for teen parents receiving services through one of the 7 Healthy Families community programs in Massachusetts and given regularly until the arrival of Covid.

Since 2020, the New Child Project has moved online to reach new parents whenever and wherever they want at a cost that is accessible for any couple. This nonprofit website is the result and is evolving in response to couples that use it. The material from all the previous courses has been put into Conversations in Coparenting in the form of short interactive videos. The material and the format is being added to and revised in response to your feedback.

Rob is a clinical psychologist with 40+ years of experience as a couples’ therapist. With a law degree from Harvard Law School (1973), Doctor of Mental Health degree at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco (1982), and an internship in child psychology at Children’s Hospital, Boston, he spent 6 years doing custody evaluations for the Family Court in Cambridge. In 1991, he founded Meeting Place: Supervised Child Access Service,  a safe place for children in separated families to stay in contact with their non-custodial parents. Out of this work with high conflict couples and his work as a couples’ therapist, Rob developed an increasing interest in preventive interventions to protect their relationships and their children. Since 2005, he has devoted his time to this goal.