At BirthWays we believe pregnancy is a time of tremendous growth in a woman's life. It is a time when you are not only becoming a mother, but you are settling into your role as an adult as well. Although your relationship with your husband will also change, it too, will be a gratifying change when you go through the birthing process together.

Sometimes pregnancy isn’t as straightforward as it used be. What should be a relatively untroubled time in a woman’s life, has often become a frightening, high-tech experience. Because of this, we can forget that ninety-eight percent of the time, giving birth is a natural physiological process and not a pathological event. Fortunately, you can bring normalcy back into your pregnancy. By educating yourself about the nuances of labor, you can make your labor not only tolerable, but joyful as well.

BirthWays is not affiliated with a hospital or physician, so we are able to serve as an independent source of information to help your family make informed decisions. We emphasize natural childbirth because it offers the safest outcome for both mother and baby and because it enhances the experience of becoming parents, whether it is for the first time or for the fifth time.

We believe that educating yourself for your baby's birth takes longer than the typical five-week hospital course. That’s why we take the extra time needed to prepare you for this thrilling time in your life. Our classes will give you a thorough understanding of the birth process, teach you how to avoid unnecessary pain in labor and show you how to make the pain you do experience more manageable. By the end of our ten-week class, you will feel competent in your ability to give birth both safely and peacefully.

We offer classes for couples having either a hospital or a home birth. For those who like to plan ahead, classes can begin as early as the first trimester, allowing you to come back for a refresher class and moral support in the last trimester - all on one fee. Or you can enroll in the traditional manner, around your sixth month of pregnancy. To ensure individual attention and to promote an intimate, fun environment, our course, the foundation of which is based on the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth^®, is limited to eight couples. We cover the following topics:

• Pregnancy nutrition & exercises
• Recognizing the stages of labor
• Natural methods of pain relief
• Hospital procedures and interventions
• Birth planning
• Cesarean prevention and VBAC support
• Breastfeeding
• Postpartum adjustment