Advice from Bradley dads?

[Honey693]

DH and I are taking Bradley classes now (most o fteh way thorugh!) and I was wondering if any dads who had been through the classes had any advice? There's just so much to cover and this is our first so I worry DH will get overwhelmed and blank when I go into labor.

[milkybean]

Biggest piece of advice is to learn what the variations of normal are.

Hubby got completely messed up when I was having prodromal labor, and called the midwives. The midwives didn't call it prodromal b/c I was a day before 42 weeks and they weren't going to deal with me continuing to be pg.

Then we found out later, after piecing things together, that my son was posterior and had at least one hand at his face. That makes for FUNKY labor. That makes for labor that does NOT fit into the happy little "if she can talk and smile don't go to the hospital", and "when she can't speak blah blah then it's time" version that Bradley talks about.

And when you have a 5-7 hour bout of transition-LIKE labor, thanks to the posterior with nuchal hand(s) baby, and at the end of that "era" you're only dilated to 5 or 6, that's when your husband's Bradley trained mind might actually explode.

So learn all about the variations of normal. That's where Bradley fails people. After our experience and posting on ICAN, I found other Bradley couples who had funky weird labor due to positioning issues, and from close-to-the-Bradley people, I know that they just don't think it's an area they need to address. I know of at least 3 (that I can think of off the top of my head) surgical births that were caused by this enormous gap in Bradley teaching.

So learn the variations, and have a plan if one of those rears its different head during labor, especially if it isn't "labor" but prodromal labor (which is often thought of as a way for baby to slowly figure out its weird positioning, and once baby works it out then labor will commence quickly).


I wish you and your hubby luck, and my hubby (sitting right here but he types really slowly) does too!

[PigLickJF]

How long between the end of your Bradley class and your due date? One thing we did that was helpful was to continue going back to classes after our class was done. It would have been a few months from the end of our class to the due date, and we were both sure that without going to class every week, we wouldn't keep up with it and most of what we'd learned would be forgotten.

Not all instructors would/could allow this, of course, so it may not be an option, but it couldn't hurt to ask. Even if you can't go back to class, try to continue practicing your relaxations, talking about what you've learned, etc to try and keep it all as fresh and accessible as possible. Try not to focus on any one thing, because what works for you during practice may not work during actual labor - it's a whole new ballgame. Also, as mentioned above, there really is no "normal" labor, so neither of you should expect things to go in any sort of predictable way. Our instructors were good about driving home this point, so we were sort of prepared to be unprepared, as it were, but the classes were still valuable and we're both really glad we took them.

Good luck to you both, if you/he has any more questions bring them on over!

PigLick