Week 26- Bradley Birthing Classes

Scanning over my entries, I realized I haven't talked much about the birthing class that we have been taking. Per recommendation from our midwife, we have been taking the Bradley Birthing Method classes. The classes started in April and we meet every week for two hours over the course of twelve weeks. We are joined by two other couples and meet in at our instructor’s house. We chose The Bradley Method over Hypnobirth as my midwife pointed out that if we had remotely "A" Type Personalities that we would probably struggle using the Hypnobirth method. Seeing that Constant is an Engineer and I am an Excel freakazoid, we naturally chose the Bradley Birth Method.

In general, the classes are to prepare you for natural child birth and are referred to as a Husband Coached Childbirth Method. In general, your husband /partner, etc. is responsible for being the coach during labor. I can't speak for any other births as I have never participated in any, but from the way I am understanding this is that Constant will be my main coach during labor (versus the nurses/doctors/midwives) - we will use the pain management techniques and relaxation exercises that we have learned and practiced throughout the class. Some folks that were not familiar with the method asked me "12 weeks- why so long", I guess the answer is- If I was training for a marathon I wouldn't just go for one short run would I?
I really didn't know what to expect. This week we will start our seventh class and honestly, I've really enjoyed the classes- much to my surprise. Regardless if you're planning to have a natural child birth or not, the classes prepare you in so many ways that I really believe you will have a better birth, if anything, a much more informed one.

So far we've learned everything from good pregnancy nutrition to the changes and stages that your body will go through during labor. Don't get me wrong, never have they ever said natural child birth was easy and pain free- they do call it labor right?--but I have learned that the pain is manageable and understanding the stages that my body will go through (particularly the transitional stage) has made me feel more comfortable with natural child birth. For me personally, I think just understanding what I will go through during the process has put my mind at ease (for the most part) and has taking the fear out of the process.

I hear a lot of stories from woman that say they for example didn’t want to get an epidural and had planned for a natural child birth, but couldn’t take the pain anymore and opted for one. Most likely that person was going through the transitional phase (on average lasts from 10-30 mins) which really means that stage 2 labor-- pushing/birth was right around the corner and they were almost there. Had they been informed and understood the process, maybe their choice would have been different. Just a thought.