_                                                                                                 Click on the  Above link Founder of the Bradley Method  Husband-Coached Childbirth, by Robert A. Bradley, M.D.   

Birth in the U.S. Informed? or Performed?
Original copy from 1985 Audio Recording of Dr. Robert Bradley 
from United Resources for Family Health & Support 501c3 Sponsored by Carol Wachniak


Dr. Bradley’s Six Needs in Labor include:

1. The need for darkness and solitude.
2. The need for quiet.
3. The need for physical comfort during first stage labor.
4. The need for physical relaxation.
5. The need for controlled breathing.
6. The need for closed eyes and appearance of sleep.

Throughout Dr. Robert Bradley’s landmark book Husband-Coached Childbirth, he explains how the birthing needs of perspiring mammals are profoundly similar to those of humans, who share similar, though not identical, anatomical and physiological characteristics.  However, while animals retain instinct, such as the ability to swim when thrown into deep water, or to find their way home without a compass, Dr. Bradley writes that humans are gifted with a “magnificent brain capable of abstract thinking, a high level of communicative ability, learning, retention, reasoning…” (page 11).  He continues:  “The current theory of natural childbirth is that we should study the animals and by intelligent reasoning learn to do, through education and training, and practice, what they do by instinct.” (page 11)

Dr. Bradley’s Six Needs of Women in Labor is a summary of those instinctual needs.   Find an expanded explanation of the Six Needs, and much more, in Husband-Coached Childbirth (5th edition), by Robert A. Bradley, M.D.