anyone VBAC'ing in Florida?

Mommytotwo.
If you are near Winter Haven, the doc who gave my clearance for the homebirth is Dr. Gatto. He does alot of VBAC's. His office is across the street from the hospital and he has fetal monitors in his office so that while the VBAC moms are laboring the fetal monitors can be observed because he can't be in the hospital for the whole labor like the ACOG outlines. He told me that he hasn't had a bad VBAC outcome in 20 years.

That's one of the reasons it is so hard to get a hospital VBAC in FL. In the city I live in their are now only 5 private obstericians and most have dropped their malpractice insurance because it is too expensive. Any "high-risk" mom gets transferred to a state protected OB.

My OB told me I could try for a VBAC. Then I found out he wouldn't let me go past 38 weeks. That would have meant induction, which increases the risk of rupture. I transferred care to the LM at 5 months. DS was born at 42 weeks.

Best Wishes to everyone!

I've never heard of those docs. My doctor is Dr. Despres in Winter Park. He was my doctor with ds too but was on vacation when ds was born and did not do my c/s. I always wonder how things would have turned out had he been there. He also wanted to induce at 38-39 weeks but I told him I would rather not and he is ok with that for now. I'm sure at my next appointment he will push for it again. He also said that the longer I go the higher the rupture risk. Whatever. I told him that induction raise the risk as well. I am 39.1 weeks now and I went into labor with ds 5 days early so I'm hoping for the same again. I plan on laboring at home for a long time. I live 35 miles from the hospital down I4 so I don't want an I4 baby. So I will also labor in the parking lot for a while until I think it's time.

3 little birds - What are the acog outlines about the doc having to be in the hospital?

From what I understand the ACOG wants docs to be w/ the mother for the entire labor in case of rupture. This is difficult for the docs because they have to be in their office, etc. If a doc allows a mom to be in labor in the hospital while he is not there and she ruptures he leaves himself open for a lawsuit because of the ACOG guidelines.

That is why the doc I talked to said that if he has a mom rupture (while he views her fetal monitor from his office) he will get sued and will lose and he will not be able to do VBAC's anymore. Most doc's aren't willing to take the risk, so they will tell a mom she is a good VBAC candidate (because almost noone wants a repeat c-section) but later she finds out she has to be induced before term, etc.

Another doc I saw during my last preg. tried to scare me with rupture stories (she had seen 2 in her career) and they were scary. Then I asked if the mom's had been induced. They had been induced in both cases. :

I'm in Central Florida too.

Midwives (CNM) at Tampa General Hospital will take a VBAC patient. They require external CFM, but would have *allowed* me to take them off for bathroom breaks, and *allow* me to stand beside the bed instead of being completely confined to it. They agreed to a heplock instead of IV. Other than that, everything they said sounded ok, but I was still scared to death of them.

OBs in Inverness (that did my c-section) said I would be allowed to VBAC, but they were much scarier to me than the midwives in Tampa. One said I had to have an epidural *just in case*, another in the practice said I didn't, but I might want it for the intra-uterine exam he *had* to do after the birth (he didn't come out and use that word, but I figured out what he was talking about)...and ran far away!

I ended up having an absolutely amazing and wonderful homebirth on April 5, 2004 with an LM in Sanford.