In my work I see couples every day facing the challenge and
joy of labor. They have reached the end of their nine-month journey and now
stand at the pinnacle of all their hard work, ready to bring a new life into
the world. Unfortunately, many of these birthing couples are ill prepared and
must muddle their way through, trying to understand the process of birth.
When my husband and I stood facing this same life bringing
process, we knew that we wanted to do it well. I had already read so many books
and watched many birthing videos. I would joyfully share new information with
my husband and explain how I wanted our birth to go. As prepared as I felt I
was, I saw that for him it was much different. It was not a lack of love or
willingness to be involved with the birth, he just didn’t feel prepared. I knew
that if he was going to be my advocate and labor partner, we would have to find
someone that could prepare us both for this great task.
That’s when we heard about the Bradley Method ®. The Bradley
Method ® was much longer and costed more than other birthing classes; but we soon
realized why. The classes were not about information, although there was plenty
of that. Each class led us in practical things like nutrition, exercises and
labor preparedness. I learned just as an athlete had to prepare her body for a
sport, so too I had to physically prepare my body for the work of labor. My
husband became very good at helping me make healthy eating choices and working
through the exercises each night. We learned to work as a team, me doing the labor
work while he coached me through the labor practices. We also learned how to be
good consumers and how to make better choices when it came to where to labor,
with whom to labor, and what decisions we would face once we were no longer two
but three.
Since these early days, we have added four more babies into
our family; for a total of five. Two of them my husband was the first one to
touch and help them into my arms. We taught the Bradley Method ® for a little
over 7 years in the early days of our growing family. After a brief break, we
are teaching once again. We would be excited and honored to speak to you about
the Bradley Method ® and the twelve weeks of classes. We know the excitement, the
challenge, the joy of birthing and can help prepare you to achieve the birth of
your choice.