The Bradley Method
How I learned that birth didn’t have to be terrible, isolated, days long, and spin my head in circles painful.
Dr. Bradley wrote a book that was ground breaking in its time. He lived in the time when fathers were taken out of the room when the mother was about to give birth to their baby. He took notice that his patients became less able to handle the situation once their partners were excused from the room. He made correlations to stress causing more pain and less ability to cope. His method of child birth encourages women to squat, sit crisscross applesauce, eat during labor, and do it with their partner when there was one. He also made sure that his patients got a glass of orange juice after birth to replace their sugars that had been burned up in the process of pushing out a baby human. His patients would walk from the birthing room to the mother baby ward on their own and were smiling. This was the birth story I wanted so I purchased and read the book and did what it said.
Key aspects of the book and method:
Focus: Aims for drug-free, surgery-free childbirth by teaching relaxation, breathing, and visualization techniques.
Partner's Role: Stresses the importance of the partner as an active, engaged birth coach.
Preparation: Covers exercises, nutrition, and education to prepare the body and mind for labor.
Avoiding Interventions: Explains how to avoid unnecessary medical interventions like fetal monitors, drug-induced labor, and C-sections.
Author: Susan McCutcheon is a certified childbirth educator who studied directly under Dr. Robert Bradley, the method's founder.
Content: Includes updated information, illustrations, and photos to make the natural approach more accessible.