Childbirth Education

Dave and I started a Bradley Method class this week. I've read and heard from friends that it's very effective if you want to go all natural. I was very impressed by our instructor, who also teaches prenatal yoga. I was expecting her to be a kind of New Age weirdo, but she seems very practical and down to earth, thank God! We're also considering taking a Lamaze course to get both perspectives, though everyone I know who used it (including Mom) says it only worked "up to a certain point". I'm using a medical group with five obstetricians, and the doctor I met with after the ultrasound told me she disliked Bradley because it made patients more questioning of their doctor's practices. It bugged me that she seemed less concerned about which method was more effective than she was about which supposedly encouraged you to be a more compliant patient. I hope she's not the one on call when I go into labor. I’m going to be asking all the doctors a lot more questions now to determine if they would support me trying to have a natural birth.