Amazing Home Birth only 15 months after C-section

[Lynann]

I wanted to share my birth story here on the VBAC forum because it was this forum that introduced me to Motheringdotcom when I was searching for answers just after I had my c-section.

I hope my story can bring encouragement and hope to other women looking at a VBAC.

Seth Andrew Conrad’s Birth Story

A little background.

I had two previous experiences of labour. The first was a missed turned incomplete miscarriage of a 12 weeks old pregnancy. That one ended in surgery with a D&C. Only six weeks later I got pregnant again. This time it was a full term pregnancy that was mostly healthy. The last few weeks I began to show signs of declining health with the appearance of some pre-eclampsia symptoms. I was sent for a blood test and a 24 hour urine draw. The blood test came back negative, but the urine draw results didn’t come back until after the baby was born, and it showed a very strong positive.

This second labour started at 12:45am on the Sunday night/Monday morning with a spontaneous rupture of membranes. This was quickly followed by the start of contractions that were only 5 minutes apart and very regular. We thought this meant it would be a quick labour, but we were wrong. After 24 hours of labouring I had only reached 8cm dilation, and had been at that point for several hours. Due to state laws for Licensed Midwives my care had to be transferred to the hospital at the 24 hour point. So we headed to the hospital, accompanied by our midwife. I was put on the monitors, given IV fluids, and started on pitocin to try to progress my labour. This carried on the rest of that night. Just before the shift change the on-call OB/GYN checked me a final time for progress. He said I just had a small cervical lip and he expected me to be pushing within the hour. However when the new on-call OB/GYN checked me just half an hour later he told us I was still at 8cm. At this point it was recommended I have an epidural so that I could get some rest, regain some strength and hopefully finish labouring. The epidural was given at about 9am, and by noon I was still at 8cm. I was diagnosed with “arrest of dilation” and the decision was made to deliver the baby by c-section. Aiden was born surgically at 2:23pm on the Tuesday afternoon.

We had made the decision to trust God for our family size at the very beginning of our marriage.  Having a surgical birth seemed to complicate our decision. We were told by medical professionals that we would have to wait at least a year, preferably two years before having another pregnancy. Now that I had a scar on my womb another pregnancy straight away would put both myself and the baby at risk of severe complications. We talked about it, and both of us felt uncomfortable with taking control of our fertility away from the One who says in His Word that He is the one who open and closes the womb. So we prayed and asked God to have His will, but to protect my womb, and to keep me safe while I healed. During this time I got a very strong impression that we would have 6 months for me to heal. Sure enough 6 months later I got pregnant again.

Initially we did not seem to have many options. None of the hospitals within a reasonable distance of us allowed for vaginal births after a c-section (VBAC) so it looked like we would most likely end up with an elective repeat c-section. While I knew if this is what it took I would submit to it, I was very uncomfortable with the idea of another surgical birth just because of hospital policy. After a lot of prayer and discussion we decided to try to find a midwife who would allow us to attempt a home birth after a c-section (HBAC) so we could avoid further surgery if possible. We found a wonderful midwife with a lot of experience of VBACs that had her office just under an hour drive away. It made for a lot of driving for prenatal appointments, but was so worth the travel to be able to birth at home.

We spent a lot more time during this pregnancy studying and preparing for the birth. At the recommendation of a friend who has had 5 HBACs herself, we purchased a copy of the “Pink Kit” Childbirth Preparation Course. We also focused much more carefully on my nutrition during this pregnancy resulting in a much healthier pregnancy with a lot less weight gained due to the lack of fluid retention that I had at the end of my previous pregnancy.

Seth’s Birth

I had contractions on and off from about 38 weeks. I knew they were not the real thing at the beginning. By my due date, however, they were beginning to intensify to the point where it was difficult to tell if this was real labour. It also began to happen more frequently, usually late at night, and always more like real labour than the previous “false alarm.” I knew these short bursts of contractions (usually 4-6 hours) were progressing my body towards actual labour, but I was starting to feel discouraged because I kept losing sleep and each day was growing increasingly tired.

The day I turned 41 weeks we had a midwife appointment scheduled for the afternoon. So Rob came home at lunch time to take me to the appointment. We sat down to have lunch together and I burst into tears. Rob hugged me while I sobbed on his shoulder. I felt so tired and defeated, as though I would be pregnant forever. I knew I would birth this baby at some point, I was just exhausted and emotional and ready to meet this baby. We drove the hour to our appointment that afternoon. Everything looked good with both me and the baby. It was probably the shortest appointment we had the entire pregnancy as we were only there for about half an hour. We had only driven as far as the first set of traffic lights on our way back home when the contractions started. I let a few go by before I said anything to Rob. We were about half way home by the time I knew without a doubt that this was going to be the real labour. We decided to head to Walmart for a few groceries on the way home. This also gave me an opportunity to walk around some before heading back to the apartment.

Once we were home Rob fed Aiden some leftovers for his dinner then gave him a bath and put him down for the night. It was about an hour earlier than his normal bedtime, but at only 15 months old he had no idea what time it was. Rob then cooked us dinner while I worked through the contractions on the birth ball. After dinner we decided to call our friend Evelyn to come over and pray with us. She had agreed to be available for the birth to look after Aiden if he needed it. I was thankful Aiden was asleep, and instead I was the one who received the support and encouragement from Evelyn. She arrived at about 9:45pm, and by 10pm I was definitely in the active part of labour. I had 3 strong contractions right on top of each other, followed a few minutes later by another 2 back to back. Evelyn was timing the contractions and they were now only 2 minutes apart. Rob called our midwife to ask her to make her way over.

At some point in the next hour we moved from the living room to the bedroom. I was trying to change my position and activity regularly, but the one thing that seemed to work best was sitting on the birth ball. Rob sat behind me and worked on helping my back stay relaxed. Evelyn was in front of me holding my hands and letting me squeeze the life out of her hands during the contractions. I did not take long to move into transition, maybe an hour. At this point I started asking for a break. I really wanted to get just a little bit of sleep, but knew it would not be happening before the baby was born. I also became very vocal during the actual contractions, moaning loud and low to get through them. I then felt an overwhelming need to use the bathroom, so Rob helped me to move, taking 3 contractions to get there. It was now just the two of us. Then suddenly out of nowhere I had the most overwhelming urge to push. It took me so much by surprise that my body just pushed before I could think about it. This first push broke my amniotic sack. It felt more like it exploded, and as I was standing over the toilet at this point some of the fluid did make it into the toilet, but a lot more of it missed and made a huge mess on the floor. Rob’s foot was right where the mess was and he later joked about feeling like he had been gunked. Rob went and got the midwife at this point, and she wanted to check my dilation before I started to work with the pushing sensation. I was 9 ¾ cm dilated, with just a thin cervical lip, so she wanted me to wait 15 minutes before pushing. It was really difficult to stop myself. The contraction would start with a push and then I would have to focus to pant through the other 2 pushes of that contraction.

I did not want to give birth in the bathroom, not to mention it was getting very crowded in there so I asked to move to the bed. It took several contractions to get there. I had 2 more contractions at the side of the bed before I could climb up onto it. I really did not like pushing while upright, or on my hands and knees once I got onto the bed. I finally lay down on my right side and pushed from there. Each contraction gave me 3 pushes, and when I was no longer fighting them it did not seem to take much effort. I could feel the baby move down my birth canal with the pushes then slide back up a little in between. I knew going a little slower would be good and allow me to stretch out more for the baby. Once the head finally made it all the way down I could feel the burning stretches I had often read about as the “ring of fire” in other birth stories. I tried to take these pushes slowly, but my body did the work without my effort.

Seth was born at 1:24am after only 20 minutes of pushing. He had hardly any molding on his head, although his face was a little swollen. He had the umbilical cord around his neck, but it was not tight and our midwife easily removed it. The one complication we did have was a nucal arm. The midwife had to pull out Seth’s hand and arm before I could birth his shoulders. After his shoulders were out there was a pause before the next contraction. I tried to push on my own with the contraction but it did nothing, so I waited for that next sudden urge, and then he was completely out. I was still on my right side so Seth was laid down on the bed beside me. We just lay there staring at each other while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing. I have no idea how many minutes that took, as I was just focused on studying the face of this new member of our family. Rob got to check the baby’s gender and announce it to me. Then he also got to cut the cord a little later. Rob then got to hold Seth while I moved onto my back to finish birthing the placenta. Again I have no idea how long it took, but I was already nursing Seth by that time. It came out in 3 tiny pushes. I did loose quite a bit of blood though and the midwife gave me a shot of pitocin to help stop the bleeding.

After a little rest it was time to check out the damage caused by the nucal arm. The elbow had caused some overstretching on the way out. I had 2 internal skid marks that each required a single stitch. I also had a small tare that needed 2 stitches. Fortunately none of these have given me too much extra pain. An unfortunately placed skid mark at the front however has proven very painful when using the bathroom, and has been the one real discomfort during recovery. This is now slowly beginning to heal and every day I feel less pain. Even with the additional complications to add to my recovery I still feel that this birth was the most incredible experience of my life.

I am in awe of my body’s ability to birth a 9lb 8oz baby with hardly any effort from me. I am in awe of the wonderful design in childbirth. I am in awe of this tiny little person who has joined our family, so unique, and so perfectly and wonderfully made.

This birth has made me feel excitement at the possibility of more children, instead of the dread I felt in the days and weeks after Aiden’s birth. I know that a home birth is exactly what we needed to have. It was so relaxed and peaceful. It was wonderful to be able to snuggle up with both Rob and Seth in our own bed in the hours after. It has been such a blessing to just have time and space to be a family together, adjusting from 3 to 4.

[Italiamom]

Originally Posted by Lynann 

I am in awe of my body’s ability to birth a 9lb 8oz baby with hardly any effort from me. I am in awe of the wonderful design in childbirth. I am in awe of this tiny little person who has joined our family, so unique, and so perfectly and wonderfully made.

I love your story Lyn!  So, so beautiful.  I'm glad that Seth's birth has restored the awe in your body, and in life.  Thanks so very much for sharing mama!!

[PoetryLover]

What a beautiful birth story! I am so very happy that you had a successful (and healing) HBAC. Thank you for sharing, Mama.