One of the best decisions my husband and I made during my pregnancy was to take a Bradley Method class. I hope the reasons to take a Bradley Method class encourage you to take one as well!
As part of our preparation for a home birth, my midwife actually made it a requirement to take a Bradley class and read Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. Upon the completion of both, we were educated and informed on the process of birth!
During my whole pregnancy journey, from conception to birth of our beautiful daughter, I learned that the most important thing is to know your options, be informed, and be respected in your choices. The Bradley Method class we took allowed us to experience all these things and more.
I love this quote by January Harshe, “I do not care what kind of birth you have… a home birth, scheduled cesarean, epidural hospital birth, or if you birth alone in the woods next to a baby dear. I care that you had options, that you were supported in your choices, and that you were respected.”
The Bradley Method class is 12 weeks of education on natural childbirth. It focuses on relaxation as a form of coping with the pain and is called husband-based coaching because of the active role the husband plays.
Let’s learn more about the Bradley Method and dive into the top ten reasons to take a Bradley method class!
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Your Husband Is Involved
When did the doctor become the hero? It seems in today’s culture it has been normalized for our husband to stand off to the side looking weak and confused during labor and delivery while the doctor comes in and saves the day.
I don’t know about you, but I married my husband because he’s my hero. I look up to him and I want him to be the one that is the hero of my birth. He should be the one by my side the entire time and making decisions for me when I am too weak to make them myself.
The Bradley Method is called husband-based coaching because it teaches the coach, usually, the husband but could also be someone else close to you, how to lead during birth.
My husband became so equipped during our Bradley Method class that he felt confident enough to deliver our child if the midwife couldn’t be there in time. He learned everything he needed to know to encourage me, lead me, and most importantly, advocate for me during birth.
Out of all the reasons to take a Bradley method class this is certainly our top one. I couldn’t have had the amazing birth experience that I did if it wasn’t for my husband being there for me and so actively involved.
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It’s A Comprehensive “All-In-One” Class
I was so surprised on my first day of the Bradley Class to discover everything we would cover. Our 12-week course certainly felt long when I signed up, but when we were in it, it flew by!
Here are the topics covered in this class: nutrition, exercise, natural pain relief, husband as the coach, stages of labor, breastfeeding, postpartum, and more. Honestly, the detail taught in each stage of labor blew me away.
You receive an online workbook with tons of information to follow along with in class as well.
This class had enough information that no other follow-up class was needed. I found that talking with others, online classes where you watch videos at your pace seem to lack accountability in learning the information, and often more research or another class is needed.
With a Bradley Class, you leave the 12 weeks feeling knowledgeable and equipped.
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Small And Intimate
The class we took was two couples, one additional couple to ourselves, and the teacher. It was a very intimate setting and we got to know our teacher and the other couple extremely well.
Halfway through the class we were already bring gifts for each other and connecting over our similarities. They made wonderful friends and it was amazing feeling supported in a community of like-minded people during or pregnancy.
On the last day of our Bradly class, I was sad because I knew I wouldn’t be seeing our teacher and classmates as regularly. The small and intimate setting helped us meet like-minded people, grow in confidence in our decisions, and make informed decisions!
Please consider this as one of the top reasons to take a Bradley method class.
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Hands-On Practice
One of the main focuses of the Bradley Method is relaxing through your contractions. When you completely relax when you’re in labor your body is able to open up and allow labor to happen more quickly and effectively.
Part of relaxing is learning what makes you comfortable. It also involves breathing through contractions.
On our first day of class, our teacher introduced us to our first relaxation technique. She showed our husbands how to help us, the wives, relax by applying pressure and releasing on different spots of our body.
Each week we learned a new relaxation technique and our teacher showed us how to apply the technique correctly.
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Advice From Bradley Professionals
Bradley Class teachers go through extensive training before they become certified and start teaching a class. Our teacher was so knowledgeable there are was never a question she couldn’t answer.
According to the Bradley website, teachers have to attend a Bradley class, read several Bradley books, attend Le Leche League meetings, have an unmedicated birth using Bradley techniques, and breastfeed their babies. They also have to attend the required workshops.
Having an experienced and educated teacher pays dividends in the long run and is one of the reasons to take a Bradley Method class!
Related Post: 7 Pleasant Reasons To Have A Home Birth Versus A Hospital Birth
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Tons Of Resources
Our Bradley Class provided us with all the necessary resources and more to learn everything we needed to know about natural childbirth. This mainly came in the form of the workbook you get access to when you sign up for the class.
But, our Bradley teacher also emailed us additional resources each week so we could have them on hand. This included different blogs or YouTube videos with information or techniques we could practice at home. Sometimes it was research-based information as well to answer our questions.
There is also additional information available on the Bradley student center, which you have access to when you join a class.
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Evidence-Based Research
The Bradley Method works! If you’re skeptical, then I would encourage you to read one of these books: Natural Childbirth The Bradley Way and Husband-Coached Childbirth.
The benefits of natural childbirth are amazing. It is the way God designed it to happen! Because the Bradley Method focuses on relaxing during labor and letting your body do everything as it was designed to do, it has such positive results!
I personally loved using the relaxing techniques during labor and found them very useful! Especially because I am naturally a very tense person and it is quite difficult for me to relax my body.
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It’s In Person, Not Online
The best benefit to being in person for a Bradley Class is that you can ask questions. Online classes just can’t offer the same experience that an in-person class can.
When you are in person you can also make real-life connections with your teacher and classmates. You can be taught with hands-on examples and you can have genuine face-to-face interaction.
Also, the class can be more tailed to your needs and situations. For example, the other couple in our class was also doing a home birth. Because of this, the teacher was able to cater her teaching to more home birth scenarios instead of providing information regarding hospitals that simply was not necessary.
If I were to take an online childbirth class, the videos are prerecorded by the teacher. She just spits out information that would be applicable to everyone so that everyone that purchases the class can have access to the same information.
When the class isn’t catered to your needs and the teacher cant teach regarding your specific situation, you waste time with repeat or unnecessary information.
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Your Voice Is Heard
In our Bradley Class, we could express ourselves. We felt valued and respected because we had a teacher that could directly communicate with us.
Related Post: 7 Pregnancy Books You Need To Read For A Positive Natural Birth
An online class simply can’t do that. A teacher in a pre-recorded video on a screen does not know you. When you are in person you get to know each other.
Our Bradley Method class is what made us feel valued during our pregnancy and ultimately helped us make the right decisions to have a labor where we were respected and our voice was heard.
When it comes down to it, it is crucial that this is one of the reasons to take a Bradley method class.
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Gives You Confidence
Lastly, this class gave us the confidence we needed to make informed choices. We were confident in the decisions we made, from the big ones to the small ones.
My husband and I strongly recommend that everyone should take a Bradley Method to properly prepare for birth, no matter where and how you decide to give birth. It was the best decision we made during our pregnancy.
Find a local Bradley Method class near you today!
Let me know in the comments below, what are your top reasons to take a Bradley method class? I’d love to hear!
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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It sounds like the class had a ton of information and was a great experience for you! I really like that quote you shared in the beginning – it is so important for women and their opinions to be respected during this process.
Yes exactly!
I completely agree that it’s so important for women to be informed and supported in their decisions around these things. It sounds like this class is full of plenty of value that helped you a lot!
Yes! Thanks!
This sounds like it was a wonderful class for you! I’m not having kids anytime soon, but I definitely want my future husband to be involved.
I hope you’ll remember this in the future…I know it will be so beneficial for you (:
This is all so great! We only took one class at my hospital which gave us some labor techniques to help with an unmediated delivery! It was so nice to have something that helped us feel more confident and prepared going in.
Totally wish we would have done something a little more detailed like this but committing to 12 weeks was hard 😂
I’m so glad you had some resources…yes 12 weeks is a long time but the payoff is so worth it! (:
I’ve done the Bradley diet during pregnancy but I’ve never heard of the Bradley method before. It sounds amazing. I wish I knew more about it when I was having my kids!
I hope this post reaches others during their pregnancy so they know! (:
That is fun that you guys got to take this class and you both loved it!
Yes, it was!