Class Registration

My name is Denyse Ffrench and I have been an AAHCC afiliated Bradley Method instructor since 2000. I have 4 children and have had very different birth experiences with all of them. My son Sebastian was born in 2000, and was a natural water birth. My daughter Violet(2002)was a natural vaginal birth, and her twin sister, Fiona, was an emergency c-section. My last daughter, Gemma(2006) was a beautiful, natural VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). I feel like my collective birth experience has enhanced my teaching greatly. I have had personal experience with a pitocin induced labor, labor that begins naturally, water birth, normal vaginal birth, episiotomy, birth without an episiotomy, singleton pregnancy and birth, twin pregnancy and birth, c-section, VBAC, etc. The common factor is the use of the Bradley Method in all my labors.

In addition to teaching The Bradley Method, I work as a birth doula and lead a support group for women who are nursing twins. It is very important for me to stay tuned in to the birth community in the Chicago area so that I can better serve my students and provide resources for them. My goal is to provide continuity in care, from birth education, to labor support and postpartum support. This is one reason why my work as a birth doula with my Bradley students is so rewarding.

My goal as a Bradley teacher is to educate couples about childbirth and let them know that they have choice and options. I would like my students to plan for the birth they want. What many people want for their labor often falls outside of what is typical protocol in many hospitals, so it is important to know about what happens at births, and what options you have.

Many people who attend my class would like to labor without medications, but are not exactly sure they want, or can have an unmedicated birth. You are about to have an experience that will be completely new to you and it is normal to feel unsure of how you will handle it. My goal is to give you tools and information that can help you to labor without interventions, to know the reasons why interventions are sometimes necessary, to prepare not only physically, but mentally and emotionally, and to honor the experience as a family event.