VBAC experiences???

Can anyone share their experiences? And why they chose one over the other? Pros/cons.

Also what research did you do beforehand, I having a difficult time finding reputable sources.

I'm starting to think about what route I'd like to take and I'm really not sure.

Re: VBAC experiences???

I had a c-section with my first because he was breech. For my second, I scheduled a c-section mostly because it was easier just to plan (daycare for my son, when my last day of work would be, DH's time off, family watching DS, etc).

However, I went into labor 15 days early with my second. When I called my OB she said to wait until I was in active labor, then head to the hospital for the c-section. I labored overnight and headed to the hospital around 5am. When I got there I asked them to check the baby. She was head down and in a good position, so I decided to do the VBAC. It was literally a game time decision. No research, no thinking, no planning. The only knowledge I really had to go by was that my OB for DS and my OB for DD (we had moved and I changed OBs) both had said I was a good candidate for a VBAC.

I will say that in retrospect I'm glad I did it. Not only for the "experience" but my recovery was much easier. I had an easy c-section recovery, too, but this was just much shorter. My actual labor was super easy, too. (Still painful though!) I went from 4 to 9 cm in about an hour. I literally pushed 3 times and DD popped out. It was very easy. But, I've had friends who have pushed for hours and their vaginal recoveries were much harder than mine.

So basically you have to make the decision that is best for you. You can't know how you'll recover or if a VBAC will even work for you, so just discuss your options with your OB and figure out the best plan for you. Either way you decide will be fine!

Re: VBAC experiences???

I just had a successful vbac on Sunday and I'm so happy! This is my 3rd baby. My first was a vaginal and my 2nd was an emergency csection. It was felt that since I had a natural with my first and labor started spontaneously with him I would be a good candidate for a trial of labor. My reasons for wanting to try for a vbac were that I did not want to have major surgery and have to deal with the recovery time with 2 other kids at home. Also my section was traumatic for me bc my baby was in such distress. I never heard him cry or see him until much later bc they had to resuscitate him.

I used midwives and they were extremely helpful and supportive. I went 5 days past due and received the epidural after laboring for as long as I could stand. After part of my bag of water literally fell out of me we tried pushing but I couldn't really feel where to push so we held off till I could. This was a huge difference with my first. I pushed for 2 hours for him and never felt where to push. When I was ready he was out in 20 minutes and my husband got to catch him. It was an amazing and healing experience for us. I was up and about and feeling great right after. Most of my pain is in my back from where I got the epidural!

Good luck with whichever you choose and just make the right decision for you!

Re: VBAC experiences???

I had one - I posted about it under my old name, let me see if I can find it

Here it is: It's mostly cut-and-pasted with some editing

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I have known since I gave birth to my son in September 2008 that I wanted to VBAC. My OB estimated that he would be 10 lbs. at birth if I went to 40 weeks, and I was told “horror” stories of stalled labor and shoulder dystocia and failure to descend. As a first time mommy I was scared and went ahead with the scheduled c-section… which I ended up not needing at all.

For this pregnancy, my “official” due date was March 7th. Well that date came and went and since I was a VBAC patient my OB was allowing me to go 10 days past my due date. That would have been March 17th, and since that date wasn’t available at the hospital, I scheduled my repeat c-section for March 16th.

When I went to bed the night of March 14th, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned for hours, getting up to pee every ½ hour. I had no cramping, no Braxton Hicks, nothing… I just felt off. I don’t know if I was just restless because I was so overdue or if I subconsciously knew something was up.

On March 15th at 2:00am on the nose, I felt my first contraction. Finally! And I was so surprised at what it felt like – it was nothing that I had imagined, which was strong, painful BH contractions. Instead, it felt more like a really bad AF cramp. I waited until I had a few more before getting up to time them. They were anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart but were coming fairly consistently. This was surprising to me as well since I figured I would start contracting far apart and they would get closer together.

At 2:45 I called the OB and then I called my mother to come stay with DS. She arrived at around 3:45, and about 20 minutes later DH and I headed to the hospital. I was just too afraid of not being able to handle the 20 minute drive to Stony Brook if the contractions got worse.

I got checked into triage at around 5:30am, and after a quick internal the RN on duty basically told me that I was only 1-2cm and she didn’t think the OB on call would admit me. At this point I was having very painful back labor, and I could not imagine having to go home.

At 6:40am, a resident checked me again, and I was 2-3cm. I told the RN that I needed to get up and walk around, the back labor was just too painful, but she told me that I needed to sit and stay hooked up to the monitors. I cannot even begin to describe the pain I was in at this point. The RN was still telling me that she didn’t know if the OB would let me be admitted but I wasn’t allowed to walk around because they needed to watch the baby’s heart rate. I thought I was going to kill someone but I bit my tongue. Luckily, I was allowed to stand up around 7:30am and was told that the OB on call was letting me be admitted. They did a quick sono to make sure DD was still head down, which she was, and I was admitted to L&D around 8am.

After approximately 20 minutes, the on-call doctor came in and I fell in love with her instantly because she said I could get the epi right away without even checking me! The anesthesiologist came in soon after, went over what would/could happen, and then started setting up. I was SO afraid that I wouldn’t be able to sit still the way he wanted and needed me to because of the bad back labor. However, for some reason as soon as he started injecting me with the local anesthetic, the back labor began to be more tolerable, and I was able to breathe through the contractions and stay still.

At this point, it was after 9am and I was able to relax comfortably. DH had a very nice comfy lounge chair to sit in, we turned on the TV and attempted to nap. The OB actually didn’t come back until almost 12pm to check me. I was afraid that the epi had stopped my progress but I was happy to hear that I was already at 5cm. This being my first “trial of labor” I fully expected to either have a stalled labor or very slow progress. Things were looking up! She also broke my water at that time to make sure that things continued to progress. May I just say what an anti-climactic moment that was. I expected a huge gush of fluid and barely felt a thing – although I did feel gushes later on during strong contractions. She also told me at the time that I had a very nice sized pelvis and she didn’t think the baby would be big at all (I think she said 7.5 lbs). This made me feel better about being so overdue.

My regular OB, who had to go to a funeral that morning, arrived at the hospital shortly before 2pm and checked me, told me I was at 7 cm, and that I had my bloody show. He was following the contractions on the monitor and saw that some were not as strong as the others and so he decided to insert an internal monitor to see how strong they were. He told me that he would allow a small amount of pitocin to augment labor contractions if my progress did stall, as he did not feel that would be any danger to me as a VBAC patient. Yet another one of the reasons I loved him so much – he really never made a big deal about me going for the VBAC, he treated me as if I was any other regular patient (with the appropriate precautions of course) and I appreciated that so much.

At some point, the epi began to wear off on my right side. That was very painful for me since I hadn’t felt anything in a while and it happened very suddenly. The anesthesiologist told me it was normal and it was fixed within 10 minutes.

At 4:30pm, my OB came back to check me. I nearly fell off the bed when he told me I was fully dilated. I never needed the pitocin! I was ecstatic and also shocked. This whole time I guess I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and be told that I needed another c-section, but things were progressing better and faster than I ever dreamed.

I told my OB that I wasn’t really feeling the urge to push so they sat me up completely upright in the bed and also had the anesthesiologist come in to turn the epi down. They allowed me to wait about a half an hour, and by the time the nurse came back in I was feeling some pressure, although still no urges. She said that was fine and that we would do some practice pushes so I could get the hang of things.

Pushing is seriously HARD work! I had no idea what I was doing, but the nurse was very encouraging and I think I got the hang of it after a few minutes. I officially began pushing at 5:13pm. My OB had to go do a c-section but thought that he would be back in time since, in the nurse’s words, first time trials of labor often push for one to one and a half hours, sometimes two. Well after 20 minutes she realized that my OB was not going to be back in time, so a different on-call OB came in for the end.

Pushing towards the end was hardest for me because they wanted me to wait for a contraction to push and I felt like she was sitting right there and I had to get her out. The waiting and the pressure was SO uncomfortable for me and I will admit I whined and complained a lot LOL but DH said I wasn’t that bad.

At the very end the nurse made DH come over to my side and hold back one of my legs because the OB needed to catch the baby. DH never planned on being that close – he was standing kind of in the corner of the room the whole time because he was afraid of what he would see. Well, he pretty much saw everything, and said that it wasn’t that bad, or what he had expected, and he didn’t mind it at all, which really surprised me (in a good way). I am glad he got to experience that.

My last push was a serious one – I wanted her OUT – but I was still shocked when they told me to stop because her head was out! I honestly couldn’t tell. One more push and the nurse told me to grab her! I pulled her up and they started cleaning her off while I was holding her. I totally got teary-eyed and that is not like me at all. What an amazing, emotional experience. It’s still hard for me to put that moment into words. It was also more powerful for me, I think, because I didn’t have that moment with my son and I was so overjoyed to get to finally experience giving birth the way I wanted to.

She barely cried but was SO alert right away and DH and I were able to hold her the entire time I was getting stitched up. I tore in three places on the inside and only a teensy bit on the outside, but holy cow those stitches hurt! I needed several doses of lidocaine for that.

I was able to BF her once before she went to the nursery and after 2.5 hours I was finally allowed to go to my room. My recovery has been great, although I am sore, and that makes it hard to sit, but otherwise I would take this over a c-section recovery any day!

For all mommies who want to try for a VBAC… this is not something I would go into half-heartedly. I only felt comfortable attempting it after a TON of research and reading many, many VBAC birth stories – both good and very bad. I also found a great practice that supported my decision, and if at any time I felt like an OB in that practice was going to try and sway me from my decision I made sure to advocate for myself and my baby. (For example, one of the OBs wanted me to schedule my repeat c-section for 40 weeks. I asked to be allowed to go to at least 41 weeks and eventually learned that “my” OB, the one I saw most, was willing to allow me to go to 41.5 weeks, which was a huge relief and made me feel that much better about my decision to VBAC.)

Message edited 4/13/2016 3:12:02 PM.

Re: VBAC experiences???

my dr was ok with it bc i went into labor on my own , fully effaced and dilated on my own and had no other risks going on

My vbac story is posted in birth story if you want to read





http://www.lifamilies.com/chat/topic-829314-1.html

link

Message edited 4/19/2016 11:49:34 AM.

VBAC experiences???

Thanks for sharing! Very inspiring. I think I'm leaning towards trying for a VBAC.

VBAC experiences???

I had a VBAC in July. With my first I went into labor naturally and fully dilated but I could not deliver after over 3 hours of pushing. It wasn't until after my c-section that we realized he was almost 11lbs!

With my second I was a VBAC candidate but made it very clear that if the baby was measuring large I did not even want to attempt it. At 36 weeks I was diagnosed with late onset GD and at that point I just decided to schedule my repeat C and call it a day. As luck would have it, I went into labor a week later at 37 weeks. Since he was measuring 7lbs at that point we decided to attempt a VBAC.

Honestly, there were times I got freaked out and wanted to just have a section. At one point I was bleeding a bit more than the nurses would have liked and it terrified me but the nurses were absolutely amazing and totally put me at ease. They assured me that they could feel the head and God forbid something happened they could have the baby out within seconds. All in all I had a wonderful experience and was so glad I had the VBAC.

Message edited 4/19/2016 12:47:44 PM.

Re: VBAC experiences???

With my first I went past my due date, was induced and never progressed past 4cm. I ended up with a csection.

With my second I was really considering a VBAC because at the time I had a 3 year old and heard that vaginal deliveries had a faster and easier recovery period.

I did my research and spoke to all of the doctors at my practice regarding a VBAC. Basically the risk with a VBAC is your uterus can rapture. The risk is only about 2%; so if 100 women tried a VBAC, 98 would be successful and 2 would not.

If your uterus did rupture, the risk is to your baby. Depending on how much oxygen is lost from being stuck they can have brain damage or worst case die.

My doctors told me that it’s up to me to decide. It’s their job to give me the facts and if I wanted a VBAC I would have to be willing to accept that 2% risk because there are no signs during labor that your uterus will rupture.

Csections are surgeries and have their own risks as well.

I decided to have a scheduled csection since I never labored on my own, never progressed and I wasn’t comfortable with the 2% risk.

At the end of the day you just have to do whatever you are comfortable with. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Re: VBAC experiences???

Re: VBAC experiences???

Here's mine:

VBAC story!

I wanted to go for it. I never bought the whole "I'm doing X because I know what to expect." Every birth - vaginal or surgical - is different. FWIW my VBAC was an incredible experience and my recovery was SO much easier. PM me with questions.

Also... I agree with the previous poster. Rupture rate is 0.5% and women without prior sections can rupture.

Message edited 4/20/2016 1:44:53 PM.

Re: VBAC experiences???

The risk was to much for us. I also had a spinal surgery and my back dr said that the c-section was a better option after my surgery. We know someone who ruptured. To close to home for us. She had a section with her 1st, Vbac or 2nd and 3rd child..then while in labor with her 4th it ruptured. The baby went 14 min's with no oxygen. Was born blind and deaf. She delivered at Winthrop and while they moved super quick, it was not quick enough. The risk is low...but from what I have seen its was to much of a risk for us.

VBAC experiences???

At the end of the day a mom has to make a decision she feels comfortable with.There is no right or wrong answer here. As I neared the end of my pregnancy my dr made me sign a wavier in case I wanted to attempt a vbac. I had to initial line by line and it was filled with all sorts of scary stuff about how my uterus could rupture, me or my baby could die, etc etc. At the end one of the line items stated "I understand that the risks with a repeat csection are greater than that of a VBAC". I swear I almost passed out when I read that. It felt like a total lose lose situation. Even still after talking it out with my dr I decided to schedule the repeat C. DS decided to take matters into his own hands and come early via VBAC and at the end of the day I am grateful for it.

Your best bet is to talk to your doctor and DH and from there decide what you feel comfortable with. We can all share horror and success stories but ultimately every labor and woman is different. Best of luck with whatever you decide!!

VBAC experiences???

Thanks everyone! It's great to hear real life stories. I feel like everything I Google is propaganda one way or another hahaha! Either super pro natural birth anti hospital birth people or people who try to scare the life out of you!

Re: VBAC experiences???

I had a VB2C. I tried for a vbac with my second but had another csection. I am soooooo happy I had a vbac. Night and day difference to my experience with having surgery. I could sit up right after delivery! I was never able to do that before. No shakes, I could hold my baby, I could nurse her. Just an amazing experience I would never change.

There are risks with both c-sections and vbacs, in my opinion, vbac risk is less, and something I was more comfortable with.

Good luck with whatever you decide!