Birthing Better birth and birth-coaching skills were developed in the early 1970s in the US by hundreds of ordinary fathers and mothers.
The Childbirth Trend of the 1960s-mid1970s was based on the very first childbirth preparation classes ever! These were Lamaze and The Bradley Method in the US and other countries and Grantly Dick-Reid in some other countries.
Let’s refresh what was happening in the maternity system back then. Most women were birthing in hospital and we followed our doctor’s orders. Fathers were just coming into births. Families used Lamaze and The Bradley birth and birth-coaching skills in and around all the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures (now called ‘Interventions’). We had NO choices.
Sadly, those first skills targeted ‘low risk’ pregnancy and birth instead of 100% pregnant women who will give birth one way or another. And, the skills didn’t adjust or adapt well. However, having some level of skills meant fewer women ‘suffered’ in childbirth. That was HUGE but not recognized as success because of the explicit goals for a ‘natural birth, pain-free labor with no medical interventions’ for these low-risk women.
During this time, Birthing Better skills began to develop. Families wanted skills that would work for their birth no matter where their birth occurred, who was present, their circumstances or beliefs; their choices, lack of choices or change of choices or what happened to or around their birth.
Fathers were equally involved in creating skills for their role as Birth Coach. From the 1970s-80s, our focus was on preventing the ‘suffering’ and give us skills to: cope, manage, work through, deal with, handle, stay on top and feel in control.
By 1980s, our focus shifted to preparing our body for birth so if we labored we didn’t have a long 1st or 2nd Stage that attracted more medical interventions.
Then men developed the 10 skills to develop through the 5 phases of pregnancy so they could keep up with the constant changes in pregnancy. This means Birthing Better skills gave us Continuity of Self as skilled adults before pregnancy, from conception, preparing for birth, work through birth and feeling confident with your newborn.