When and Where are classes?

Inwood and Washington Heights
New York, NY

Fee: $400.00. Space is limited. Make-ups are included.

Sliding Scale offered on an individual basis, or through the Nurse-Family Partnership.

 

What is The Bradley Method?

The Bradley Method uses the book Husband-Coached Childbirth*, written by Robert Bradley, M.D. as a guide to achieving natural, or normal, childbirth. His work was important in how husbands were treated in the birthing process, getting them out of the waiting room and into the delivery of their children.

Using visual aids and videos to teach about the natural process of birth, the Bradley Method seeks to educate you in all areas, versus ‘preparing’ you for what any institution says is normal. This is considered practice based care. Husbands are taught how to support a mother in pregnancy with an emphasis on how to be her advocate and coach during labor and birth.

We share information as a class on how to avoid unnecessary pain and ways to handle positive, or natural, pain. Topics are further enumerated below.

 

Why choose The Bradley Method?

Classes are small (only up to 8 couples) with lots of individual attention.

The Bradley Method has the highest success rate of any natural birth method, 96% in Dr.Bradley’s practice and 87.7% through the AAHCC, the overseeing Bradley Method organization. By natural, we refer to completely unmedicated, intervention-free birth.

This approach includes a varied look at the unique ways we each handle pain to the practical ways of supporting a laboring women in the different phases of labor. It prepares the couple for possible complications that might arise and how to handle those, tips on communicating with practitioners, hands-on practice, massage and acupressure, positions for labor and delivery, and more. Class time is also devoted to birth preparation and labor practice, with the end achievment a toolbox that can be used in any course of labor!

*Even in Dr.Bradley’s book numerous references are made to clarify that Husband-Coached Childbirth can be partner based, or family based. The idea being support is there as much as any direct parent would give.

 

What EXACTLY is included in Uptown Birth’s classes?

Topics Include:

- Introduction to The Bradley Method / Ways of Handling Pain

- Exercise: Birth as an Athletic Event

- Nutrition in Pregnancy

- Gestation: Anatomy of Pregnancy and Birth

- The Coach’s Role

- Emotional Signposts of Labor

- First Stage Labor

- Second Stage Labor

- Planning your Birth

- Variations and Unexpected Situations

- Postpartum Preparation

- Basic Introduction to Newborn Care: breastfeeding beginnings, swaddling, and babywearing.

I also include a copy of Susan McCutcheon’s Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, and a Student Handbook.