Mary Kury, Bradley Childbirth Instructor

Mary Kury is a Bradley Childbirth Instructor. She teaches classes at the Labors of Love Birth Center in Spartanburg, SC. I attended one of Mary's classes with my first doula client, Juli Ennis. Both Juli and I took away a lot of knowledge which was helpful during Juli's labor. Read Mary's story below.

My husband and I got married in June of 2006 with full intentions of waiting to begin our family until the fall of 2008 (that's when I would turn 30). But, God had different plans for us, and three short months after our wedding day we were pregnant with our first child. In my mind, I had a "designer birth" all planned out... schedule c-section with a tummy tuck afterward. I mean, if Britney Spears and Heidi Klum could do it, why couldn't I? Well, I thought that since this was a pretty important event, I should know as much as possible about the procedure and what I found was shocking. I went from wanting designer birth to wanting the complete opposite. I just wanted a normal birth. No medication, no drugs, no one bothering me. I spoke with a coworker about his twins' birth experience. He said that his wife had done it naturally! I wanted to know how she did that, and he gave me the number to their childbirth education teacher. My husband and I signed up the next week. After 12 weeks of instruction, and armed to the nines with information, I presented my birth plan to my OB. She systematically crossed off everything that was important to me, and told me that it was either against hospital policy or that it would cause my or my baby's death. I left feeling sad and angry. That weekend, a girl in my Sunday School class asked me how long I wanted to "feel the contractions" before I asked for an epidural. I told her that I wanted a natural birth and she laughed and said, "Well I'm certainly not the girl to talk to. Talk to her." And she pointed to a tall, slender wisp of young woman. I talked to her for over an hour and discovered that she had had her baby at home! I did not want to do such a thing as that, but did want to interview her midwife. That week we met Linda Weaver and went over my typed list of 92 questions- it took over 2 1/2 hours, but that was when we made the decision to have our baby at our home. I was 34 weeks pregnant, and at 38 weeks, my beautiful little girl arrived in a very textbook normal birth.

When she was a few months old, I wanted to contact my childbirth education teacher and tell her how integral she had been in my ability to have a natural birth experience, but found she had moved to Arizona. I had maintained a close bond with my midwife and told her about the move and she recommended that I begin teaching the class- there was no one within a 2 hour drive that was offering that curriculum. So, when my daughter was four months old, my family drove to the workshop in Atlanta and I began my journey to teaching. The more I learned, the more passionate I became. I found that women were not being properly educated about the risks and benefits of seemingly "routine" procedures. My appetite for reading medical literature became ravenous, and I couldn't seem to find enough books to quench my thirst for knowledge. I built a comprehensive library of materials to correlate with my classes. I have enjoyed the last year of teaching my students that childbirth is normal, not an illness, and I have been extremely proud that the vast majority of my students are able to have completely unmedicated births. I even had a couple tell me afterward, "She was going to give up and get the epidural, but she didn't want to mess up your stats!" I thought it was cute, but ultimately, it was what got her through a tough part of labor. And she had the birth experience that she wanted.

I love developing close relationships with my students and talk with many of them on a weekly basis. It is so amazing to watch them grow from being husband and wife to becoming mom and dad. And even though it was just for a breath of time, I was able to be a part of their family's birth experience. It is such an honor to work with expectant parents. I truly have the greatest job in the world.

** Contact Mary at maryandtodd@gmail.com.

Me and Juli @ Mary's Childbirth Class

Juli practicing pelvis rocking.