Husband-Coached Childbirth (Fifth Edition): The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth BY Robert A. Bradley, Marjie Hathaway, Jay Hathaway & James Hathaway
This book is more about the Bradley philosophy, and because of this many reviewers felt it was long winded. I felt like the philosophy was the most important thing- as his research and history in the practice explained why the method and classes were important. So, I feel like this is the perfect companion for Bradley classes and other Bradley books. In my opinion, this is the best book, the most helpful book, and by far gave me the most motivation.
Dr. Bradley has his own reasons for advocating natural child birth. I think his reasons helped him understand child birth as a natural process and helped him "create" the Bradley Method. You or I might have different or adjusted reasons for wanting a natural delivery but we can still benefit from his methods. I appreciate that while he recommends an un-medicated delivery, he is not anti-doctor. He says a delivery doctor should be like a life guard: fully trained, ready and able to deal with any complication. Yet he says any woman about to have a baby ought to "learn how to swim." His book helped me immensely! I had one medicated birth and two accidentally un-medicated births. Then I read his book and learned what my body had done and why. His information encouraged me to chose an un-medicated hospital delivery for my fourth child.
Epidurals are NOT the instruments if torture they used to be so don't let his stuff on that scare you into natural child birth. If you do want natural child birth, for whatever reason, I highly recommend this book and the one written by his nurse Susan McCutcheon. Hers has more details on the method. It is a must-read! I ordered it and got it in on my due date. My husband and I read it cover to cover that night (watch out - lots of photographs!) and I'm so glad we did. Dr. Bradley's book was helpful. Susan's book was invaluable! If you can't get both, get hers.
I think his method is the best natural child birth method. I really do. I don't agree with his reasons for choosing natural.
From this book I was most helped by his understanding of what a laboring woman needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment