A birth doula is a woman trained in normal childbirth. She works for the couple, rather than the hospital. She provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother and her partner. Click here to read more about what a doula can do for you and sign up for use of my services!

Your birth is a special event and cannot be repeated. Statistics show that women who take Bradley childbirth classes have a high success rate (over 85%) at achieving a natural childbirth. It takes time to learn and absorb the information as well as learn the different techniques. Relaxation is the key to a natural labor and most of us are not good at this. It takes time to master this skill.

VBAC is the abbreviation for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.

I am very grateful to both Simi Denson and Deidre Lorenzo (and the moms and dads pictured) for sharing their photographs with me. Simi is located in the Austin area while Deidre is in the San Jose, CA area.

When I had my first child my midwife insisted that my husband and I took the Bradley classes. It made sense to me to go through weeks of preparation versus a class that lasted for just a couple of days. It gave me time to process the information.

Most important is the belief in having a husband or a partner involved as a coach. They are important because they know you best in terms of how to help you relax and because you usually have been through life together. Ultimately, this helps with bonding as a couple and it helps with bonding with the child at birth. Bradley really focuses on the joint effort of working together, and this builds a foundation for parenting later on. Bradley also covers nutrition, exercise, and positive communication techniques between the couple and with medical staff. There's also a lot of information on breastfeeding.

My classes typically consist of four to eight couples. I try to keep it around six couples because that way there are better group dynamics and people feel very comfortable to talk and to ask questions.

We've been told all along that doctors are almost god-like because they go through so much education and training, but the bottom line is that we still know ourselves best. I try to encourage parents to take an active role and question things.

We try to teach a lot of different methods of relaxation so that it becomes a learned response. This is not something that we do very well in our culture. The relaxation techniques really help in labor, and it's good to have lots of them because you never know what's going to appeal to you in labor. We also teach the importance of exercise during pregnancy. Things like Kegels, squatting, and pelvic rocks. I always recommend that couples stay active and keep the blood moving. Labor is a very vigorous activity. Some of the other best exercises are walking, swimming and prenatal yoga.

I absolutely love it. I think there's nothing more magical and miraculous than to see a baby being born. With my students and my doula clients, I like to help them realize how powerful they are. I don't ever want them to say that they couldn't have done it without me. I'm so happy when students come back and share their stories, especially when they feel positive about their births, regardless of how the birth came about. The majority of my clients are Bradley students. It works because I know their level of commitment to what they want.

First, examine why you feel a need to induce your labor. If you are confident that trying to artificially start your labor is the right choice for you, then please read this article. Even with natural induction methods, you should always check with your medical care provider before doing anything.