VBAC mamas? « Back to Group Discussions

[Marilyn82]

Just curious if anyone is planning a vbac and if so, how are you feeling about it? Kinda early I know but it's on my mind a lot.

I had an unecessary cesarean with my son (chalk it up to not advocating for myself!) and a failed homebirth (hate that term!) turned hospital transfer/repeat cesarean with my daughter. Planning an HBA2C this time but I feel kind of...I don't know, lackluster about the whole thing. I just have zero confidence in my body and part of me just wants to sign up for another c-section and just give in.

The only thing stopping me is that I REALLY want to go into labor naturally (a chance I doubt I would have if going to a traditional OB in my area of very limited options and with my history of going over dates) because I believe it made a significant difference in my ability to immediately bond with my baby and in my ability to nurse easily. All those hormones seem to be really good for me :) I also don't want routine ultrasound or doppler use and don't do many of the "normal" prenatal testing such as the AFP test/GD screening etc....I just don't think I have the fortitude to deal with a traditional OB lol.

Anyway that's whats going on with me, how about you guys?

[tibris]

Hi, This will be my 3VBAC. My first was an emergency, they knocked me out to save her, it was a big shock since I was wanting a completely natural birth. Second time around I had a 36 hour long labor that started with my water breaking, but no ctx. I did have her vaginally, but I had meds and an epi and it put me in question of whether my body could do things or not on its own. Third time around I almost did things right  early labor started at 2am, I had a dr appt that afternoon, she said I was in early labor and it would probably be a couple more days, I had DH come home to DTD and low and behold I had her first thing the next morning after an incredibly painful birth that also ended up with an epi. Anyway, I figured out last time, my body can do this, but I need to allow it to do things it's own way. This time I'm not going to try to "help" the process at all. I think we get caught up in the what ifs and try to "help", best thing to do is let the body labor as it wants to and try not to stress about it!

[Bmorefarmgirl]

Vbac attempt here! We were planning a home birth with my son. Watched all the videos (bobb, orgasmic birth), read birth without fear, took Bradley classes, attended my sister's two beautiful natural births. I was 100% ready and got totally blindsided. Developed preeclampsia at around 31 weeks. A week bed rest at home, a week in the hospital, then every intervention I was trying to protect myself and my baby from became necessary. 3 day long failed induction at 33 weeks. 16 days in the nicu.

Even 2 years later, I am still processing and working to accept what happened. I am really excited about having another baby. Right now I am just trying to take everything one day at a time. Of course laboring as a vbac will have its own set of difficulties, but right now I am just trying to grow a full-term baby. As long as I stay healthy this time, I think I will do fine with labor. I was tolerating pit ctx with no epidural until my uterus was hyper stimulated and everything went downhill. If I do get sick again, At least one question will be answered: this will be our last baby.

[TheDivineMrsM]

VBAC hopeful here! I was just about to ask this question; I'm glad I'm not the only one. 

DD's birth sounded like Tibris's first. My daughter was posterior, and they gave me pitocin and an epi as an attempt to turn her. Her heartrate crashed before they had a chance to kick in. I was rushed into the OR and knocked out. The second question I asked in recovery (after, "Is the baby ok?") was "Can I VBAC next time?" Unless there's some kind of serious medical problem, I can't willingly sign up for repeat surgery without a compelling reason. Trying to explain that a prior c-section for fetal distress doesn't mean a lifetime of surgical births to my friends and family has been interesting - and that was before we knew I was pregnant again. I've been collecting stats to throw at family members that think I should "just schedule it." I'm tentatively switching midwives.  The new group has an 88% success rate, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm also hiring a doula this time and I've got to check with my insurance to see if chiro is covered. Sipping my RRL tea as I type this.

This birth might not go as planned, but if I go down, I'm going down swinging. 

[tibris]

With my first VBAC I argued with people who tried to tell me VBAC was illegal! They truly refused to believe me. Now that I mention I've done it twice they shut up :p With my first one I was in the hospital for a week due to passing a lot of blood in my sleep, dr convinced me we needed to get her out so she used cytotec to try and start labor, I bled out and DD was losing a lot of blood too so her bp dropped and they had to get her out. She spent a week in NICU, had a transfusion and spent a couple months on an apnea monitor. She was 36 weeks.

[Bmorefarmgirl]

Originally Posted by TheDivineMrsM 

VBAC hopeful here! I was just about to ask this question; I'm glad I'm not the only one. 

DD's birth sounded like Tibris's first. My daughter was posterior, and they gave me pitocin and an epi as an attempt to turn her. Her heartrate crashed before they had a chance to kick in. I was rushed into the OR and knocked out. The second question I asked in recovery (after, "Is the baby ok?") was "Can I VBAC next time?" Unless there's some kind of serious medical problem, I can't willingly sign up for repeat surgery without a compelling reason. Trying to explain that a prior c-section for fetal distress doesn't mean a lifetime of surgical births to my friends and family has been interesting - and that was before we knew I was pregnant again. I've been collecting stats to throw at family members that think I should "just schedule it." I'm tentatively switching midwives.  The new group has an 88% success rate, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm also hiring a doula this time and I've got to check with my insurance to see if chiro is covered. Sipping my RRL tea as I type this.

This birth might not go as planned, but if I go down, I'm going down swinging. 

88% is great! The latest stat for my midwife's office is 75%.

[TheDivineMrsM]

Originally Posted by Bmorefarmgirl 


88% is great! The latest stat for my midwife's office is 75%.

75% is still solid! At my last ICAN meeting, they advised us to look for a provider with at least a 70% success rate. 

[Bmorefarmgirl]

That is good to know. I saw the number and had no idea whether that was good or not. I guess considering the overall c-section rate (for the hospital, state, country, etc), it is pretty good!

[Era28]

This will be my 1st attempt at VBAC, I am pretty confident it will go well. My Doctor says she would prefer to do a VBAC and is confident that I am a good candidate. However, there was something that I was told that I am worried about. The Doctor said that they strongly recommend me having an epidural, she said if I did not have an epidural in the event that I have to have a c-section they would have to stick a tube down my throat and give me the medication orally. She said she would be hesitant to do a VBAC without an epidural. 

The entire reason why I had to have an emergency c- section the 1st time is that right after I was given the epidural I went numb completely, couldnt move from the neck down. My blood pressure dropped, I fainted. The babies heartrate went down to 30 beats a minute and then lower and my contractions completely stopped. I didnt even get to hold or see my baby for 8 hours after the birth because he had to be on oxygen. So I am strongly against the epidural because I feel like my body had a reaction to the epidural or they did it wrong. 

I want a VBAC, but dont want an epidural. I'm sure all of you with midwives arn't doing an epidural. My other option is sitting down with a team of anastesioogysts and figuring out other options for pain managment in the even of an emergency. 

[tibris]

Originally Posted by Era28 

This will be my 1st attempt at VBAC, I am pretty confident it will go well. My Doctor says she would prefer to do a VBAC and is confident that I am a good candidate. However, there was something that I was told that I am worried about. The Doctor said that they strongly recommend me having an epidural, she said if I did not have an epidural in the event that I have to have a c-section they would have to stick a tube down my throat and give me the medication orally. She said she would be hesitant to do a VBAC without an epidural. 

The entire reason why I had to have an emergency c- section the 1st time is that right after I was given the epidural I went numb completely, couldnt move from the neck down. My blood pressure dropped, I fainted. The babies heartrate went down to 30 beats a minute and then lower and my contractions completely stopped. I didnt even get to hold or see my baby for 8 hours after the birth because he had to be on oxygen. So I am strongly against the epidural because I feel like my body had a reaction to the epidural or they did it wrong. 

I want a VBAC, but dont want an epidural. I'm sure all of you with midwives arn't doing an epidural. My other option is sitting down with a team of anastesioogysts and figuring out other options for pain managment in the even of an emergency. 

I would not consent to that at all! That is ridiculous! My hospital wants all vbacs to get a heplock when they are admitted just in case things start looking like a repeat c/s but to insist on an Epi sounds like she has no faith in vbac especially w your history for her to say that to you. I would find another Dr.

[TheDivineMrsM]

Originally Posted by Era28 

This will be my 1st attempt at VBAC, I am pretty confident it will go well. My Doctor says she would prefer to do a VBAC and is confident that I am a good candidate. However, there was something that I was told that I am worried about. The Doctor said that they strongly recommend me having an epidural, she said if I did not have an epidural in the event that I have to have a c-section they would have to stick a tube down my throat and give me the medication orally. She said she would be hesitant to do a VBAC without an epidural. 

The entire reason why I had to have an emergency c- section the 1st time is that right after I was given the epidural I went numb completely, couldnt move from the neck down. My blood pressure dropped, I fainted. The babies heartrate went down to 30 beats a minute and then lower and my contractions completely stopped. I didnt even get to hold or see my baby for 8 hours after the birth because he had to be on oxygen. So I am strongly against the epidural because I feel like my body had a reaction to the epidural or they did it wrong. 

I want a VBAC, but dont want an epidural. I'm sure all of you with midwives arn't doing an epidural. My other option is sitting down with a team of anastesioogysts and figuring out other options for pain managment in the even of an emergency. 

I don't want an epi either. I always wondered if the epi was the reason for my DD's heartrate dropping. But. There are so many unknowns that I'm not ruling anything out. But I'd be leery of anyone that told me that I "had to" get one. 

[katelove]

Originally Posted by TheDivineMrsM 

Originally Posted by Era28 

This will be my 1st attempt at VBAC, I am pretty confident it will go well. My Doctor says she would prefer to do a VBAC and is confident that I am a good candidate. However, there was something that I was told that I am worried about. The Doctor said that they strongly recommend me having an epidural, she said if I did not have an epidural in the event that I have to have a c-section they would have to stick a tube down my throat and give me the medication orally. She said she would be hesitant to do a VBAC without an epidural. 

The entire reason why I had to have an emergency c- section the 1st time is that right after I was given the epidural I went numb completely, couldnt move from the neck down. My blood pressure dropped, I fainted. The babies heartrate went down to 30 beats a minute and then lower and my contractions completely stopped. I didnt even get to hold or see my baby for 8 hours after the birth because he had to be on oxygen. So I am strongly against the epidural because I feel like my body had a reaction to the epidural or they did it wrong. 

I want a VBAC, but dont want an epidural. I'm sure all of you with midwives arn't doing an epidural. My other option is sitting down with a team of anastesioogysts and figuring out other options for pain managment in the even of an emergency. 

I don't want an epi either. I always wondered if the epi was the reason for my DD's heartrate dropping. But. There are so many unknowns that I'm not ruling anything out. But I'd be leery of anyone that told me that I "had to" get one. 

If your BP dropped so low that you lost consciousness then I'd say there is a very good chance that that is what caused your babe's heart rate to drop

[katelove]

I'm planning a VBAC but Im worried that I'm not a great candidate. With my daughter I agreed to an induction at 41+5 ( or 42+4 depending whether you use LMP or conception date) because I was concerned about going too much further. My personal comfort zone is around the 42 week mark. Despite using a cervical ripening agent and *high* doses of synto combined with lots of walking up and down the hallway my cervix stayed long, hard and closed, I had no contractions and her head stayed high. No idea why. After 5 hours of trying I agreed to a c/s ( my membranes had ruptured spontaneously the day before probably because of the cervadil).

So having had nothing that even came close to looking like labour signs and no explanation for why nothing happened I am a bit worried about the same thing happening again. But hoping that it will be completely different of course :-)

[Era28]

Thanks Ladies for the input. I was thinking the same thing, that I should go to another doctor. I really am against having an epidural and I don't want to be talked into it ever again. With my DS I wasn't going to do it, then at the last minute I changed my mind because the nurse said I was crazy for not getting it and it wasnt a "big deal" boy was she wrong... The hospital where I am is the only one around that will consider VBAC so I am going to try to find someone that understands that I can not and will not have an epidural no matter what happens :) 

[tibris]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat we only have one hospital around here that will do VBAC, I've heard there is ONE dr at another hospital that is willing to do it as well, but not sure if he's even around now. I just can't believe she would even consider that given your previous experience. Talk about worrying about covering their ass w/o considering the patient. That's awful.

Katelove, every pregnancy is different :) I hope this birth will go smooth for you!

[Simonsez2u]

I had a natural hospital VBAC birth with DD.  I agree with previous posters you have got to have a good support system.  My doctor basically said that he would let me birth how I wanted.  The only area we butted heads was in how many days past my due date he would let me go.  He was afraid that the baby may get to big and he was not comfortable with letting me attempt  a VBAC with a big baby.  It totally stressed me out feeling like a clock was ticking (I cook my babies longer than the due date).  In the end he agreed to "let" me go to 41-1/2 weeks (I basically refused to consider a c-section until a decent amount of time had passed then I would think about it).  I went 6 days past.  The hospital staff was super supportive and in a moment of weakness at 8cm I said I thought I wanted an epidural but they cheered me on and encouraged me to keep going.  I really loved my VBAC experience compared to my unplanned c-section.  I felt really empowered and in control something I DID NOT feel with the birth of my son.  Praying all goes well I hope to go for another VBAC with this LO.  Good Luck!

[katelove]

Originally Posted by tibris 

Katelove, every pregnancy is different :) I hope this birth will go smooth for you!

Thank you :-) I keep telling myself that and that there is no reason why this time I won't go into labour at 38 weeks. Here's hoping!

[TheDivineMrsM]

How old will your c-section baby be when your VBAC baby is born? Mine will be almost exactly two years apart. 

[tibris]

My second was 17 months after my c/s

[abouttobe5]

I've had 2 c sections and hope to do a vaginal delivery this time around.  Midwives are supportive but rest of birthing community (including hospital where we will deliver) is not.  So, here's to a fight over the next 6 months to make this happen!!!  My son is 3 so they deliveries will be 3 1/2 yrs apart.