Last time around, I read Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way (not by Dr. Bradley) and The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. We had also bought Husband-Coached Childbirth, but we didn't get around to reading it in time. I'm pretty sure that was a big mistake.
In contrast to Natural Childbirth, Husband-Coached Childbirth didn't have pictures to explain different exercises or labor and delivery positions or long instructions and checklists for the labor coach. It did have all that information, but it was a little more brief. It was more broad in discussing pregnancy and childbirth, so I felt like a got a fuller understanding of why the Bradley Method teaches the things it does. For example, I knew the Bradley labor positions during my first childbirth experience from my reading. But I ended up not doing them for the worst part of my labor because I really didn't understand why they were important. My labor made so much more sense to me after reading this book, and in some ways I wish I could go back and correct the mistakes I made because I think my specific labor experience could have been shortened by several hours if I had done just a couple of the things suggested in Husband-Coached Childbirth that I didn't do.
While Natural Childbirth seemed more like reading an instruction manual, reading Husband-Coached Childbirth felt like I was having a conversation with a doctor sharing his several decades worth of experience. It is a nice contrast to the other two, though I wouldn't say that it is better. It was nice to refer back to Natural Childbirth while reading this book for the pictures or more detailed instructions about pregnancy diet and recommended exercises. And this book doesn't have the updated research that The Thinking Woman's Guide does (e.g. its information on episiotomies I found extremely outdated), so it is a great companion to those books for the helpful explanations and experience that he shares, but not necessarily a good replacement.
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