Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way: Revised Edition Kindle Edition

AMAZING! This book helped my husband and I have a natural drug free childbirth and I have undying gratitude for all the knowledge and information I learned from it before giving birth to my beautiful daughter only a few days ago. It makes you question what we are doing with childbirth in the united states, and opens your eyes to the easiest understanding of how it should be done which is healthier for the mom and baby and overall health of your child for life! I never questioned the hospital system on birth because you just think we have the best healthcare, doctors and knowledge but the truth is no drug has been proven safe for your baby and brings attention to the fact that evidence based science and births show that natural child birth is the way to go for healthier babies for life. I thought the hospital system was always in our best interest and wanted the best healthy way of birth for you and your child, but birth is a big business and when there is a lot of money involved, the best interest and wishes of the parents and babies aren't always in your favor. Weather you decide to do a natural birth or not, I encourage all moms and parents to be to read this book and understand birth is beautiful and should be a wonderful experience and you shouldn't fear giving birth. Before I read this there was a lot of fear of pain and fear of the unknown with birthing. Understanding yourself, having a supporting coach (my husband) and how you tolerate pain and how you let go and relax instead of fighting labor really made the process a somewhat spiritual empowering thing. Not some dreaded painful experiences like portrayed in the movies. Please read this book and question things like epidurals, early cord clamping, and the safety of the drugs they give you while in labor. Proper nutrition, sitting/exercising, the importance of your coach, comfortable birth on your terms and your time are a few things this book discusses that helped me prep for the big day in a big way. I feel like if I did not know about the bradley way of birth, I would have had a negative experience and still be recovering severely and might have made some bad personal choices that are easily avoided and have huge benefits to giving birth natural with no drugs no side effects. I walked in my birthing center (not hospital, bc that cost the same for me) at 9pm and had my daughter at 4am in a birthing tub and walked out with her and I fully alert and ready to be home by 9am. It's amazing what your mind and body can do when you are given the right knowledge. You give up your choice when you don't know you have one. I will recommend this to every friend and family member that is going to have children as I feel it changed my life for the better and made birth contractions tolerable and beautiful not scary and painful. You are excited and welcome the big birthing day not drugged out of your mind and altered so you don't "feel pain" which you will when you can't feel the pushing from the medication/drugs and rip yourself when you fight birth not naturally flow with it. Give yourself credit ladies....WOMEN ARE AMAZING AND OUR BODIES ARE MEANT TO DO IT NATURAL! Love yourself, empower yourself and don't be afraid to question how birth is done today in hospitals. Give yourself some knowledge that lasts forever. If reading this book can increase your happiness in your special birthing experience and give your child a safer head start in life, it's a very easy thing to do. Read it!

I'm a first time mom and during my pregnancy I have amassed a small library of books on pregnancy, labor, and childcare. There is such a great deal of variation particularly in the Natural Childbirth arena. Some books read like text books and some read like stories from a hippie-commune campfire. This book however, explains childbirth in a way that makes sense to me. McCutcheon describes a natural process without being too technical or too granola. This was the first book I have found that describes 10 most-likely labor scenarios rather than giving one generic description with variations. The book also reads through logically and linearly from conception to prelabor, early labor through transition, and finally the birth of the baby. No nonsense practical advice for mom and her coach at each stage.I found the pictures and diagrams in the book to be incredible helpful, even though they are graphic. Diagrams of childbirth should be graphic in my opinion. Those reviewers who found this distasteful should buy some fig leaf stickers and place them as they see appropriate.Not only was I happy with this book, my husband liked it the best too. This was the first book to put his mind more at ease rather than making him more anxious about the big day. This book made him feel like he has a real role in the labor process rather than someone who is supposed to stand helplessly and terrified on the sidelines while other people tend to me. He even wrote down notes from the book to keep with him at the hospital when the time comes. He is so much more excited about being a part of the labor process after reading this book.The only con in this book, which has been mentioned several times over, is that the descriptions of hospital procedures are outdated. I do think it is still a valid point that hospitals are too quick to resort to intervention - even if those interventions are not as drastic or harmful as they were 20 years ago. I went into triage yesterday for monitoring (for pre-eclampsia) and I had three different doctors/attendees offer me tylenol. I know they are trying to do their best to make everyone happy and comfortable, but it can be overkill!