It was January of 2010 and my husband already knew with
certainty, but I was unsure. Could I
really be pregnant? I was in shock. Was there really a baby growing inside of
me! A few weeks later we took a
pregnancy test and, sure enough, we were going to have a baby in our arms in
the early fall!
From the moment we found out, I knew I wanted to try my best
to have a natural childbirth. I
expressed this desire to my husband and he was fully supportive. We didn’t do anything to prepare, however,
because I wasn’t ready yet. Childbirth
seemed scary and I wanted to focus on enjoying my pregnancy and wait a little
longer to learn about the birthing aspect.
When I reached 7 months reality began to settle in. This baby was coming out one way or another
and I was now eager to learn all that I could!
My sister loaned me her copy of “Husband Coached Childbirth” by Robert
A. Bradley and I eagerly started reading it.
I was content to read the book and not take the classes, mainly
because we were on a tight budget. My
husband, however, picked up the book about a week after I started reading it
and, after reading a few pages, he looked at me and said, “Lyla, my
responsibility is so much bigger than I realized. We REALLY need to take these classes.” I was thrilled! I picked up the phone and called several
Bradley teachers in the area and we were in a class the next week with cash in
hand.
Our due date was the last week of class, and thankfully we
were able to finish the whole series before giving birth. After finishing the classes, neither of us
felt scared, but rather excited about the adventure and joy of natural
childbirth. We were still a bit nervous,
but we felt prepared and that was a great feeling!
On October 1, 2010 it became obvious to us that I was in
labor. We headed to the hospital late
that night. We labored through the night, into the early morning, late morning, and afternoon with no drugs! Was this baby going to come, or what! Then, on October 2, 2010 at 3:01pm our midwife said, "It's time to catch your baby!" With eyes wide in wonder, my husband reached down and caught our precious little one. "It's a boy," he exclaimed with tears streaming down his face. Oh what joy!
We both describe the event as one of the most intimate and favorite
times of our marriage and life together.
We cried. We laughed. It was so
emotional and wonderful. We wouldn’t
trade it for anything.
Because of this wonderful experience, we are so thankful for the Bradley Classes and we are eager to share this knowledge with others so that they too can feel
confident and prepared for the individual and unique birthing experience they
will have.
UPDATE #1: On March, 8, 2013 at 1:11am our second baby boy entered the world! We had another amazing, but very different Bradley Birth. When we arrived at the hospital I was already 10cm dilated. Two hours later I started pushing and within seven minutes the baby was in my arms. What a whirlwind! We are excited that we can share what it is like to have a very long natural childbirth experience and now a very short one.
UPDATE #2: On July 11, 2016 at 5:37pm we gave birth to our third Bradley Baby--another boy! I was 9.5cm at check-in and was ready to start pushing by the time the midwife made it into our hospital room. An hour and a half later, our 9.5 lb. baby boy was born. As you can imagine, no two births are quite alike, and we are excited to have the opportunity to pass on what we gleaned from this experience to our new students.
UPDATE #3: On January 25, 2019 at 11:03am we were overjoyed to meet our fourth Bradley Baby and this time it was a girl! We waited until the birth to find out the gender and what a surprise it was. She was born in our home in a birth pool within 2 hours of realizing that labor had begun. She was 6 days "late", but when she was ready she came in quite the hurry. We are excited to now be able to share the experience of both water birth and home birth with students who attend our classes.