Hmmmm. Well, this is a tough one, actually. I used hypnobirthing with my personal births, but was very very well read on the processes of pregnancy and birth. However, until I complete my ALACE CBE training, I always am sure that my doula clients get themselves to a Bradley class, and I teach them everything I can about hypnobirthing and make sure they practice it everyday. I feel strongly that, if you and/or your husband aren't thoroughly trained in the processes of pregnancy and birth, what to expect, how to tell without vag checks "where you are" by what you're doing and saying, a bradley class can be very helpful. However, I also know the importance of trusting implicitly the possibility of a calm, quiet, pain free birth...if you understand how it can happen, and how to ENCOURAGE it to happen...and if you practice the methods multiple times a day. My labors and births were what my dh calls magical. I was calm and quiet, and didn't even push my second child out, just "breathed him down". THey were quick, too. Four and two hours respectively of active labor. So, in that vein, I can't help but recommend the hypnobirthing...if you read, read, read other books, too. I'd recommend Active Birth, The Birth Partner, Shiela Kitzinger's Pregnancy and Childbirth, Peggy O'Mara's Having a Baby, Naturally, and the Sear's The Birth Book, to begin with. Also, I'd see if you could buy not only the Bradley book, but the work book they use in the class, as it gives even more info. Sorry, I know this wasn't really definitive... but I guess I'd recommend both of them, depending on what your outlook on birth is. If you believe in your heart that you can have a pain free birth (it still takes hard work, by the way...by definition, labor isn't easy, it just doesn't HURT!), then go with the hypnobabies class and read the other books...and go to
www.blueribbonbabies.org to follow the diet that bradley families follow, too. If you think you might want to try hypnobirthing but aren't otherwise a great reader, I'd take the bradley class and get the hypnobabies cd and book and practice two or three times a day from the day you get it, as soon as you can (even if that is in the first trimester!)...the more you practice, the deeper your relaxation response in labor and during birth. Good luck in your choices!
) The Hypnobabies home-study is definitely a full childbirth ed class (I've heard that some of the other childbirth hypnosis programs are heavy on the hypnosis, light on the childbirth aspect), and the creator of the program actually started out as a Bradley instructor. For me, it would have worked out better to do Hypnobabies from the beginning, but there are certainly lots and lots of women who have had wonderful Bradley births, and you could definitely be one of them.
