Every VBAC I've supported has led to a c-section!

[Tiffany]

In the upcoming births topic, Lynn said she has a couple VBACs coming up and it made me think of this...

I have only supported 3 mothers going for VBAC and I feel like I'm bad luck! So much that I am weary to even take on another VBAC client and I will say my views on VBAC are slightly skewed because of the letdowns.

The first one was so disappointing. Mom did great and made it to 10 cm without meds.. I KNOW I helped her with that goal, but she pushed for 2 hours and finally the head OB came in and said "You could push for days and this baby will never come out." She was devistated and immediately started crying.. and of course I cried with her. I am so sensitive about these things. She kept saying over and over "What did I do this for? Why did I do this?" because the ctx kept coming and she lost it at one point not knowing if she should even try to push since they were getting her ready for a section. I helped her get back on track.. I had her keep pushing because it's what felt better.

Next, was a surprise breech so I suppose I never had any control over that. The hospitals here automatically section for breech.

Third, oh this one was horrible. I helped my client labor at home all morning with a broken water and we called the midwife at noon to come check her. She was only at 2cm and decided to go to hospital for pain relief. There, she had nubain and she labored and labored... hours later the midwife still had trouble checking cervix because it was so posterior. Client never made it to epidural and said "c-section" at about 1am. She had so much trouble getting the spinal so they put her under a general for the section. There were a lot of emotions involved in that one.

Anyway, I don't know how to convince myself that all VBACs don't end this way. Please help me by sharing some positive VBAC stories!

[raspberrymoondoula]

Oh so sad!! I know i'm nervous jsut becuase theres such an anti vbac vibe in this state right now. start at www.ican-online.org to reaffirm the safety of vbac over cesarean to yourself, that alone makes it so much more important to me to encourage vbac- evidence based medicine!! next go to www.birthlove.com and read all the happy VBAC stories!!! and just for fun, heres my birth story:
Birth Journey

Jacob’s Story- The beginning

My first pregnancy didn’t go very well. Much like many first time moms I read What To Expect When You’re Expecting and felt like I knew it all. My husband was on deployment, and we had just moved so I knew no one. I spent most of my time in bed watching television and eating. In my 6th month I suddenly put on 10lbs in a week. My weight continued to spiral up and I developed pre-ecclampsia. It wasn’t diagnosed until I went into labor at 37 weeks. At that point I had put on over 65lbs.
I was fortunate enough that my husband came home two weeks before I went into labor. We finished putting together the crib and got a small vacation away. At 37 weeks to the day I went into labor around 1AM. Things started out normally enough, nice easy regular contractions. We called labor and delivery and they told me to get a shower, eat something and call back when the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. So I showered, which was wonderful, and I got a bowl of cereal. The contractions had picked up some so we called back and they told us to come in. Once we were at the hospital they checked me and I was only dilated to 2cm. They were going to send me home but my urine had protein in it and they decided to admit me. All of a sudden I was hooked up to IV’s and stuck in bed. It took them 11 tries to get the IV in (seems to be a problem with that hospital, took them 15 tries at a later date when I had my gall bladder removed). I was put on magnesium sulfate for my blood pressure and given a catheter, which was excruciatingly painful. I was in agony stuck on my back in bed with all these things hooked up to me. The nurses were rude and barely acknowledged me; my birth plan had been completely ignored. I asked for an epidural and was told it would “slow my labor”. I only found out later that the magnesium is often used to stop labor and the epidurals can lower blood pressure so I may as well have been given one so I could rest. My water broke about eight hours into my labor and I was dilated to 5cm. The contractions instantly became unbearable, lying in bed felt like the worst place to be and I only wanted to get up but was denied because of all the monitors and tubes. The nurse came in and gave me a shot of stadol without telling me what it was or even asking. When I started to freak out when I asked what they had given me (I had stated from the beginning I wanted no narcotics because of the potential harm to the baby) they said it was because I was “making too much noise” and they couldn’t have that. Almost immediately the baby’s heart rate dropped to 30 beats per minute from 140. They rushed me into the operating room and hooked me up to an ultrasound machine and screwed an internal monitor to my son’s head. That still makes me cry today to think they put a screw in my child’s head. I was finally given my epidural, but the anesthesiologist was horribly rude to me, telling me I had “too much extra padding” for him to get it in right. The same man told a friend of mine the same thing. The epidural only worked on one side and I had to be given a spinal as well. They had me sign forms consenting to a cesarean section. I began having trouble breathing and stopped breathing all together momentarily. The spinal had been done too high and froze my lungs. I threw up. I don’t know how they got in under control, next all I remember is being shaved, then cutting and tugging and pressure as they pulled out my son. They didn’t even show him to me. My husband had been allowed in the room at some point and got to go see our son. He wrapped him up and brought him to me for a few short seconds then they left the room to give him his first bath. I was then stitched up and wheeled to a recovery room. I remember getting the worst shakes, they kept asking me if I was cold and put a warm blanket on me. Later I learned the shakes are a common side effect of all the drugs. No one there told me that.
I slept a long time after that. My husband says it was nearly a full day before I got to see my son. He was brought to me and I tried to breastfeed. It was hard because of the tubes and incision and the gown had to be pulled all the way down to free my breast. My son was very groggy from all the drugs but he managed to latch on and nurse. The nurse told me to pinch him so he’d cry and open his mouth wide enough to latch on. I was appalled. The next day I was transferred to another room that I had to share with another woman. She’d had a vaginal delivery and was walking around like nothing had happened. I was so angry! I could barely stand without feeling faint. If I used the bathroom I passed clots the size of baseballs. I was finally able to shower, I had to use a chair because I couldn’t stand. I remember dropping my soap and not being able to pick it up and I just cried. A nurse came in to check my uterus and pressed on it so violently, getting frustrated because she said it wasn’t a normal shape and she was having a hard time finding it. Any time I called for help picking up my son I was treated rudely, like they thought I was just lazy. I could barely lift him; I had no strength after the surgery. We had our son circumcised, I almost immediately regretted it; he came back shrieking. Whoever said babies don’t feel pain has never had a baby. I later learned that babies have died from hemorrhage and infections from unnecessary circumcisions. I realize that it’s my job as a parent to learn all of this but what happened to the job of a doctor to give their patients a right to informed consent? After twelve or more years of medical school you expect these people to have more knowledge and to share it with you but they don’t.
After four days in the hospital we came home. It took me weeks to start feeling normal again. For the first two weeks I slept on the recliner because I couldn’t lie flat in bed without pain. I found a Boppy pillow very useful for nursing, as I couldn’t put my sons weight on my stomach.
After such a disheartening birth I had decided for a long time that I didn’t want any more children. I felt violated like I had been raped. When my son got to be around 20 months old I started wanting another baby and was depressed because I felt like my only option was another c-section. Even my husband had said it would be easier because I wouldn’t have to go into labor again. I told people all I really wanted was to run off into the woods and come back out with a baby. I didn’t want anyone to touch me or poke me or come near me while I was in labor. I wanted the only people to touch my baby to do so with nothing but love. No monitors, no screws in my baby’s head. Someone sent me a website, http://pages.ivillage.com/coatlicue/ detailing the birth of a baby named Grey Forest Walt. This woman gave birth with midwives on top of a mountain out under the sun. I was amazed! I didn’t know people did this kind of thing. I knew some women had homebirths but I had always thought you’d be crazy to want it. I followed the links to her more recent birth, at home, unassisted and finally knew THIS is what I wanted. I did more research on unassisted birth. I came across Laura Shanley’s website, http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/ and emailed it to my husband (who was again on deployment). At first he was surprised that I was thinking of another child. He didn’t think an unassisted birth would be safe and asked me for some proof that the baby or I wouldn’t die. Well, I couldn’t prove that, mother and baby can die anywhere, even in the hospital but I was able to find statistic after statistic that repeat cesarean was unnecessary, that I was more likely to die in a car crash than having a baby. If I don’t have a driving instructor in my back seat when I drive to the mall why should I have a surgeon there when I birth my baby? I also found some good statistics at http://www.unhinderedliving.com/stats.html. After looking over the info hubby agreed we’d start trying for a baby when he got home. I spent the rest of his deployment researching birth at a rate of near obsession. I had dreams about this pudgy baby boy; I just couldn’t wait to meet him. My husband got home the end of May and by the end of July we found out we were expecting. I had originally planned to have an unassisted pregnancy as well but I met a nice homebirth midwife and decided to get a few prenatals. It made my husband feel a bit better to get a professional opinion and it wound up being helpful for paperwork reasons later. I joined several UC and natural birthing groups on yahoo and ‘met’ many wonderful women who offered up a great support network via phone, email, and even in person. My pregnancy progressed wonderfully. I was active, ate well, and felt wonderful. I had far less morning sickness than with my first son. We moved to South Carolina from Virginia at the end of my pregnancy. I hurt my back and we decided to get a hot tub to help my backache. What a wonderful thing to have for a pregnant woman! It took so much pressure off to be able to float in the warm water. This is where we wound up having our unassisted homebirth.

[raspberrymoondoula]

Ryan’s Story
At 5:20am on March 28th 2004 I woke up because I just couldn’t get comfortable. I used the bathroom and tried to get back to bed but couldn’t get comfy, so I got up and got online for a while. I started feeling regular contractions about 15 minutes apart. I told my husband and said he could go back to sleep to which he replied “yeah, right”. He ran to the store and picked up some milk and a few other things since he wouldn’t get the chance later. I sat on my birth ball and sniffed a lavender aromatherapy pillow I had. I began to pace around the house, as contractions got stronger and closer together. I tried to eat but felt a little queasy so I drank some Gatorade instead. I’d made up some of my own laborade ice cubes and sucked on those. I took a shower and when the hot water died on me all too soon I decided to get into the hot tub. The contractions picked up stronger and faster once in the tub and I started feeling pushy but after 20 minutes of pushing and it just not feeling right I decided to get out of the tub. I put some chux pads down on my bed and lay on my left side for a while as I’d read that was supposed to slow things down but it didn’t help much. I also started having some back labor at that point and needed my husband to provide lots of counter pressure on my lower back to help. I sat on the birth ball, showered again, and moved around a lot but the contractions started coming right on top of each other so I got back in the tub. We sat in there a long time with my husband pressing on my back. I don’t think I could have gotten through it without the water and his help. My son helped some cheering me on and held my hand on occasion. He mostly stayed inside watching movies. I used lots of vocalizing and breathing techniques to help as well. Around 2PM I started feeling pushy again and this time it felt SO good to push. I could tell I had hit transition because i started feeling like I couldn’t do it and burst into tears for what seemed like no real reason. I was tired and wanted desperately to just sit and put my knees together but I could feel his head right in my pelvis and it just hurt to lean back. If I had one thing to do differently I would have taken prenatal yoga to stretch and strengthen my thigh muscles, I think it would have helped immensely!! After I started pushing I stayed on all fours with my husband pressing my lower back with each contraction. Boy were his arms tired the next day!! I eventually started to feel the head descend with each push. The contractions still hurt as they rose but when I pushed with them it just felt amazing! My husband really coached me on and let me know he could feel the baby descending. At one point he accidentally poked the head and I felt my son move inside me it was so strange! I hadn’t experienced any of this in my first labor. When the head began to emerge my husband said he felt something squishy and I reached down and felt something soft and pulsing and momentarily thought it was the cord. I tried not to panic and looking back on it I knew deep down nothing was wrong but I had my husband call 911 just in case. (In retrospect even if it had been the cord, if it were still pulsing then it was still moving oxygen to the baby anyhow!) As he called I got up in a half squat, one knee up one kneeling, and I started to push like crazy knowing if the cord was there I had to get him out NOW. As he started to emerge more I realized it was just where the bones in the head fold up during delivery and nothing was wrong. I still pushed like crazy since my husband was still on the phone and he gave the dispatcher the play by play as if it were a baseball game; “The head is crowning, wait its out, wait there’s the body! Its out the baby is crying and fine!!” I felt the head pop out and the body shot out into the water after on the next contraction. He was born posterior-face up! I pulled him up out of the water and cried “I did it we have a baby!” the 911 dispatcher asked, “So, is it a boy or a girl?” we hadn’t even thought to look yet!! We looked and told him it was a boy, he congratulated us asked if we still needed them and we said no, thanks so much and got off the phone. We went inside to warm up the baby. (I imagine at this point I might have shocked some neighbors as I’d just given birth naked on my porch but no one has said anything yet!). The cord was very short and I had to waddle with him at my belly button level. It couldn’t have been much more than a foot long. My husband laid him on the bed and covered him with warm towels from the dryer. He was taking a long time for his limbs to pink up so we suctioned him a little and worked on warming him up. I couldn’t nurse with the cord so short so we waited for it to stop pulsing and turn white and we cut it. I had wanted to wait for the placenta initially but it just was too awkward to care for him. I took some angelica tincture to help ease the placenta and my husband dried off the baby and got him dressed. I tried to squat over a bowl to deliver the placenta but I was SO tired I just couldn’t do it. A few more contractions came on so I knew it would probably come out soon. I went and sat on the toilet and nursed my newborn son; the placenta fell out a few minutes later. I scooped it out and put it in the bowl I’d originally planned to use, passed my son to my husband and got in the shower to clean up. Even with all that hard fast pushing I only had a tiny tear that I didn’t even notice till about a week later after it all but had healed up. My husband weighed the baby while I was showering; he weighed 8lbs 6oz. My first son had been 6lbs 11oz; it always amazes me how VBAC babies are so much bigger!!
We’ve been doing great since. He is now 11 days old and growing like a weed! I’m so grateful to have had my unassisted VBAC!!!

That's probably the most incredible story I have ever heard! I've seen a lot of things but never an unassisted birth~ never mind the fact that it was also a VBAC. You are one brave lady!! It just goes to show how truley amazing our bodies are and how much you knew yours!! Very very cool....

Oh ya Tiffany, I have seen some really beautiful VBACS also. OK not nearly as cool as LYNN's but that's cuz it was hospital based and meds involved.... but it was still neat. Moms really surprise themselves and us too!!
Controversy has been rough reguarding VBAC's. When a bad VBAC happens it can really scare the OB's. Not to mention insurance companies don't like to hear that. So even if c-sect rates for VBAC's may not seem justified... The doc's may have had one too many bad experiences and shy away. And the media doesn't help either. Law suits don't make it fun to practice medicine. Sometimes you feel like a walking target for lawyers and insurance companies. I would not want to be a doctor for anything in this day and age. And then there are those "other" doc's that make the real good ones look bad.

[Tiffany]

Lynn.. I read your stories early and didn't have a chance to reply since we were going to IL's for dinner. I agree with mumandme2 completely.. your stories were birth amazing, how you described your traumatizing first birth and then your beautiful and satisfying home UC.

Thanks so much for sharing.. it made me feel better but the thing is you did it on your own.. you made up your mind this is what you were going to do and you did it. The problem I have is women come to me saying, "I want a VBAC" and though I try to educate them the best I can, and I send them looking for books and great materials, it never seems to be enough of that inside journey they have to take to come to the realization they are GOING to give birth vaginally. Then, when labor starts, it's like they are unsure of what they should do, or scared, etc. I have to find a better way to help prepare a woman for a VBAC.

Thanks so much for sharing your stories.

[AmberTerhune]

Speaking of VBAC's, I'm just wondering if hospitals in your areas are still allowing them. Here, in Northern Nevada it's "once a C-section, always a C-section". I believe that the only hospital in Las Vegas Nevada also just recently stopped allowing VBAC's. (Is this correct Kachina? And did they put it into effect already?) It's so frustrating!! A friend of mine, in Las Vegas, had a cesarean for her first, VBAC'd her second and third, and now, has to have another c-section for her fourth!!! Unless she has a home birth, which she's not quite comfortable with. But that's her only option, if she even wants to attempt to have a vaginal deliver. Anyway, just curious!!

[Kim Trower]

Amber, Have your friend try Dr. Sauter..he is doing VBAC's at Spring Valley, especially with that situation why not if 2 successful vbac's have already happened.

[raspberrymoondoula]

quite a few of the hospitals around here are no longer offering vbac and there is currently a (hopefully) temporary ban on midwife assisted vbac. not cool. ICAN has largely become an unassisted childbirth group. and most of the mommas unlike myself dont want to uc they jsut have no other choice. its painful. but yeah i think a lot of it was determination, and i dont think i'm so brave, i think you'd have to be a hell of a lot braver to have a hospital birth lol

[Babies_Bellies_Boobies]

a good friend of mine on a nother board has had a uca2c and is due again around labor day (she plans to have the midwife get there in time for this one though, she didnt intend for her other one to be unassisted,

[raspberrymoondoula]

way to go her!!! is she in SC?? we could use the inspiration on our ICAN list. theres a woman there whos trying for a VBA2C and will probably go UC due to lack of options.

[AmberTerhune]

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU Kim!!!! I will give her this message!! I would love to see her have another vaginal birth!!! So, I take it that Spring Valley is allowing VBAC's then?? Is this the only hospital now?? Thanks again!
Amber

[Kim Trower]

It is up to the doctor at this point, things go back and forth here in Nevada. It's frustrating, first you can then you can't then you can with stipulations...so I hope he says yes to your friend..my experience with him has been good.

[Babies_Bellies_Boobies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raspberrymoondoula way to go her!!! is she in SC?? we could use the inspiration on our ICAN list. theres a woman there whos trying for a VBA2C and will probably go UC due to lack of options.

nope, she isnt in sc, she's out west (way out west, lol) she lived in colorado at the time, and is in cali now iirc.

there is another mama on a nother board i post at here is her sig line:

"Mommy to , , and HBA2C
Obviously the problem exists in medicalized birth and not my physical being!!! Moving on, but never forgetting. "



the empty spots there are smilies, btw.

[tlcdoula]

[quote=Tiffany]In the upcoming births topicI have only supported 3 mothers going for VBAC and I feel like I'm bad luck! So much that I am weary to even take on another VBAC client and I will say my views on VBAC are slightly skewed because of the letdowns.

I think the really important thing to remember here is that every single choice these mothers make will influence whether they will have a successful VBAC or not -including the choice of their physician, and most of these things do not have anything to do with you.

The other thing to remember is that no matter what you made the birth experience better for these mothers.