The Bradley Method^®, also known as "Husband-Coached Natural Childbirth," was developed by Dr. Robert A. Bradley over 40 years ago. He observed that animals seemed to generally give birth without all the pain and anguish that so many woman seem to suffer. He hypothesized that when one follows natural processes, things work better. After personally delivering some 22,000 babies, Dr. Bradley's concepts have proven themselves time and again. Dr. Bradley's personal patients needed c-sections less than 5% of the time (compared to the current national rate of 26.1%).
 

Dr. Robert A. Bradley was born on a farm in Atchison, Kansas. Growing up on the farm provided Dr. Bradley with the love of nature that he brought into his medical practice. Dr. Bradley learned that nature was not something to fight against but something to follow. He often said, "It's not my method, it's God's method".

Dr. Bradley earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas in 1940, served as an entomologist from 1940-1943 and entered Baylor University College of Medicine in the fall of 1943. He served in the United States Navy in 1944 and 1945. Dr. Bradley received his M.D. in the spring of 1947 and began his formal training in obstetrics at Minnesota University Hospital where he first fought for the right for husbands to enter the delivery room. Dr. Bradley completed his formal training in 1949 and once again entered the United States Navy as a physician. In 1952 Dr. Bradley left the Navy and began a successful obstetrics practice in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Bradley's book Husband-Coached Childbirth sparked a nationwide interest in the involvement of husbands in the physical birth process that continues to grow to this day. The "Bradley Method®" has stretched the globe and numerous celebrities such as David Hasselhoff, Donald Sutherland, and Sissy Spacek use the Bradley Method®.

In 1970, Dr. Bradley co-founded the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth® which provides education and instructor training. Dr. Bradley helped bring 22,000 healthy babies into the world and his method has helped over a half million couples have natural births. Ninety-six percent of these births have occurred without the use of drugs or other interventions. After his retirement in 1985, the Governor of Colorado named May 5th of that year "Dr. Robert A. Bradley Day" and the American Biographical Institute named him "Man of the Decade".