For the Joy of Birth - The Bradley Method OKC

Dear friends, I am taking a break from teaching childbirth classes.

I am still affiliated with The Bradley Method but for now my status is “inactive”. It has been a wonderful 5 years of teaching and supporting students! And I do believe I will be back at it in 2023. But this year I felt led to focus my attention and efforts on my family and homeschooling. We will also be reevaluating what teaching should look like for us in the future.

Thank you for understanding!

Excellent labor support tips from

I get asked frequently what can help our bodies work efficiently in labor and birth. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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While the things I listed can help set you up, every baby and birth is so very unique.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Regardless of what you use or don’t use, take a deep breath and be patient with yourself and that baby making it’s way down.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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⁣⁣More than anything though, we need to get BACK to trusting our bodies abilities to give birth. This is not a new concept, it is what they were made to do!⁣⁣
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And don’t forget, to take an independent (not a basic hospital one) childbirth education class!

Some women are offered induction of labour because their due date falls around the festive period.

Induction of labour may be offered (and sometimes requested) around high days and holidays, but it has pros and cons and implications, which makes it a big decision that is worth thinking about carefully.

Please get lots of information before you decide what’s right for you and your baby.

Words by

Ensuring that you are receiving true informed consent from your provider is vital to making educated decisions about your birth. While your provider SHOULD be offering all the information, both risks and benefits, this does not always happen. Asking these questions will help you get the information you need before you make a choice.

Remember, YOU are the decision maker in your birth since you are the one who will live with the results. Listen to the information, take in your provider’s suggestions and trust your intuition.

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Pain Free, Empowering Home birth after an “Emergency” Cesarean.💪

: My first baby was an "emergency" C-Section because my OBGYN said my he was "too big" & "I wouldn't have been able to push him out anyway". It left me ashamed, depressed, confused & like such a failure because my body "couldn't" do what it was designed to.

Five months into this pregnancy, after some red flags, I dropped my OB and switched to a home birth midwife. Over the next 4 months, I was so encouraged, educated & well cared for by my midwife & Doula, it was almost too good to be true. They debunked myths, gave me evidence based research. They spoke to me like I AM the Mama & I AM the one who has the final say. It was a night & day difference compared to my hospital experience!

At 12a.m. on May 1st, I woke up to mild period-like cramps. I simply ignored them & went back to sleep. At 4a.m. I went to the bathroom & checked my shorts & I noticed a nice sized water stain. I texted my midwife & she told me to get some rest and go about my day as usual. I officially got up at 8am, still crampy, so I took a shower thinking that the warmth of the water would help. That's when I noticed that these cramps seemed to have a consistent 2-3 minutes pattern.

Over the next hour, things progressed crazy fast. Before I knew it, They were stronger & I couldn't talk through them like before. I was still in disbelief & didn't think this was actual labor. My doula advised me to drink Electrolytes & get filled up on protein because I'd need the energy. I finally accepted that this was the real deal when I tried to eat & everything made me gag.

Once my doula & midwife arrived, I labored for around 8 hours or so, remembering everything I learned:
-not to resist the contractions & leaning into them
-keeping my jaw relaxed & mouth open making deep "moo" sounds,
-listening my doula’s affirmations when my mind began to doubt & fear….

At 11:14p.m. On May 1st we welcomed our second baby boy, August Haddon was born weighing 8lbs 3oz.

*Painful? I honestly wouldn't say that. Intense, YES. It is a moment that I will never forget.

high blood pressure affects 10% of all pregnancies!

were you told to reduce your salt intake to lower your blood pressure? this is outdated advice.

studies show that a low-salt diet neither prevents nor controls preeclampsia; and can actually make it worse.

even a Cochrane review — a highly respected source of evidence-based analyses — concluded that advice to lower salt intake in pregnancy should NOT be recommended!

in a 1958 study of over 2,000 women (THIS IS NOT NEW INFORMATION), researchers noted lower levels of preeclampsia in women who consumed HIGHER levels of salt.

the researchers advised these women to “measure out each morning four heaped teaspoons of salt and to see by night they had taken all of it.”

this resulted in “SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY” from preeclampsia.

recent studies have replicated this finding, noting higher salt intake during pregnancy lowers blood pressure and lessens the severity of preeclampsia.

salt is not your enemy!

salt is your friend and is beneficial for your body.

I recommend investing in a good-quality salt with less than 100 ppb of lead (check my SALT highlight for more info)!

have you ever been afraid of salt? if so, how do you feel about it now?
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photo by



info sourced from Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols

Guess what. You can have a beautiful, supported, fulfilling hospital birth, too.

Yes, being in a hospital can increase your likelihood of experiencing lots of 'things' (birth trauma, provider abuse, coercion, etc) but let me be honest, this can happen anywhere, hospital, birth center, home.

There seems to be two camps home birth/anti hospital or hospital/anti home birth. Here's what I know. Having informed choice, consent, first right of refusal, autonomy, trust in you, your body, your baby, the process, nonjudgemental support, evidence-based education and information for decision making, experienced and supportive providers, and birth team can absolutely make all the difference in your experience regardless of where you birth.

Where you birth is your choice.
How you birth is your choice.
Who is with you when you birth is your choice.

AND!

It is your choice to CHANGE those choices
AT👏 ANY 👏 POINT 👏 for ANY 👏 REASON.

An obstetrician from the 1800’s decided your due date.

And VERY often babies are forced out of the womb before they’re ready based on his calculations.

The obsession with a gestation of 40 weeks leads to an increase in inductions, interventions, and surgical birth - all of which have physical and emotional/mental consequences for mother and baby.

But where did this guess date even come from?

The due date calculation we use today comes from an obstetrician named Franz Karl Naegele, who invented “Naegele’s Rule”. This calculation starts with the first day of your last menstrual period, goes back three months, then adds one year and 7 days. The result is a gestation of 280 days (40 weeks).

The 40 week date is an average, meaning that about 1/2 of people will give birth before that date, & 1/2 after. It probably wasn’t seen as a hard eviction date in the 1800’s.

But today we live in a fast-paced world that runs on schedules and money. And with the ability to “control” birth via induction and surgery, this 40 week average date often turns into the day when your baby will be forced from your body.

Here are my top 3 reasons why using this calculation as a hard eviction date is wrong...

1. Naegele’s Rule is based on a 28 day menstrual cycle. If you, like me, don’t ovulate at exactly day 14 of your cycle, this calculation won’t work for you. Most people don’t know when they ovulate, and this important fact is almost never taken into account when calculating a due date.

2. Our bodies are all different - we didn’t all get our periods at exactly age 11 years 6 months and 13 days, so why would our bodies all grow babies at exactly the same rate? To use a due date as an estimate of when a baby will arrive is one thing - to use it as an eviction notice is a completely different story.

3. Many factors determine whether you are likely to have a longer or shorter gestation - if you are between the ages of 19 and 34, having your first baby, or are white, you are statistically more likely to have a longer pregnancy. 

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This image stopped me in my tracks. WOW! The partner as the birth stool!

We’re not meant to birth alone. The physical and emotional support of a loving partner is everything.

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