VBAC at the Mercy Hospital for Women (Heidelberg)

[Betcha]

Hi all,
I am new to BellyBelly... 15 weeks pregnant with my second. DD is 20 months and was delivered via c-section due to breech presentation.

I am looking for anyone who has attempted a VBAC at the Mercy Hospital for Women in Hiedelberg (Melbourne)... public care. I'm wondering what your experience was like, especially in terms of the hospitals policies and procedure vs your own wishes. Were the staff happy to take your birthplan in to account or were they more set on keeping things as medical as possible? I'm starting to freak out a bit mostly because I just don't feel empowered and I just don't know how hard it's going to be to keep things how I'd like them. I'd love to hire a doula but just can't afford it.

[Cassius2]

Hi and welcome to BB!

...

Also another thing to consider is the use of a student doula. usually this can be free as part of their training requirments to attend births...just a thought...

[Betcha]

I thought this was in the VBAC section

And the student doula is a great idea. If anyone has any ideas on how to go about finding one then please share

[Cassius2]

sorry! i only just came outta the general labour and birth section so must of gotten confused LOL! you are in the right place LOL!

to find a student doula there is the doula section here too...and ppl might also have recommendations on who they used etc.

Good luck!!

[BellyBelly]

I second the doula idea. The mercy doesn't have a reputation for being pro-vbac or supportive of it but you do get some of them now and again who are. But you don't want to risk it, it's your birth, which will be etched in your memory forever and not anyone else's. VBAC rates are higher with a doula, if you can afford a trained one, it would be ideal, especially with someone who has VBAC experience and can navigate and support you through the hurdles you will encounter, time restrictions, monitoring etc which can effect your chances of success. For gold standard care you can hire your own private midwife.

[Julie Doula]

Yep I second what Kelly has said. I have not found the Mercy to be very supportive of VBAC or V anything really. More likely they'll say all the things you want to hear until you're on the bed aattached to monitors and then they'll find a 'reason' for your RCS and that will be that.

Although like Kelly, I'm a doula, I agree with her that hiring your own Private Midwife is your best bet if you are serious about a VBAC. That way you can access the Midwifery Model of care, instead of playing roulette with the same model of care (obstetric model) that got you a c/s in the first place.

With an IM you have two options open to you: stay at home and do much of the labour at home with your IM's support, she can check the baby's heartbeat so you know bubs is fine, then transfer to hospy when you are in strong labour, towards the end of dilation. Your IM will go with you into the hospy and advocate for you.
Second alternative - if, as labour is going well, you felt that you don't want the disruption of the transfer to hospy, and you feel confident to, you can stay home and birth your baby with your IM. If you chose this she would likely call in a second midwife to attend.

I know a couple of student doulas who would love the chance to support a woman through birth. But if it were me, I would be hiring an IM and planning a homebirth. You have double the rate of VBAC success with that plan.

Betcha, if hiring an IM or trained doula is too exxy, you are going to have to be one smart sassy mumma and consumer. You could try the strategy of staying home for as long as possible, really doing the hard yards of labour at home with your student doula's support, then moving to the hospital with your doula accompanying you. But there are so many pitfalls even before labour begins when you are trying to birth normally in the medicalised system. You will need to do really good research and preparation, and have a clear plan so you know what you'll do if:
- you are still pregnant at 42 weeks
- your waters break and contractions don't start immediately, or within 18 hours
- if there is slight meconium in the waters (normal for a term baby)
- your baby is posterior, or the head is 'high'
- you naughty uterus dares to dilate slower than 1 cm per hour
and so on. There are just so many obstacles to birthing normally in the hospital system. You might actually be better off at Warragul Hospital or even the Royal Womens that the Mercy. I wish I could be more encouraging, but the usual routines and procedures of the medical model hinder normal birth, then they need to go in and 'make' it happen. IME homebirth is the only way to avoid this in Australia. In other countries you can have midwife-led care or independent birth centre, but in Australia the only way to avoid the medical model and access the midwifery model, is homebirth.

I think Midwives Naturally have something like a 90% VBAC success rate. Here are their recommendations for a successful VBAC

[Julie Doula]

Actually this document from the Victorian Health Department gives a 100% success rate for HBACs with private midwives in 2005 & 2006.

midwivesVictoria: More irrefutable evidence of safety in homebirth

Geez, we really need to get rid these midwives and stop the practice of homebirth, it is just so UNSAFE!

Compare:
In 1997, the caesarean rate in Australia was 20.3%
In 2006 it was 30.8%

in 2006, 16% of women who had a primary caesarean achieved a VBAC in the hospital system.
83.5% had a Repeat Caesarean Section. The most common reason given for RCS was "previous caesarean".

Make of it what you will, but here's something that occurs to me .... a 30% c/s rate and an 83.5% RCS rate ... way to guarantee repeat customers in a billion-dollar caesarean industry.

Hmmm, any incentive there to criminalise midwives with a 100% VBAC rate and drive homebirth underground? Is it simply a matter of eliminating all competition to a total monopoly?

Are Australian women to be merely fodder for the massive obstetrics industry?

[Kristin27]

Betcha, I will be attempting a VBAC at the Mercy Hospital next year as a public patient and they have been nothing but supportive and positive about it.

I suggest you have a chat to them about it when you're in next before making any decisions. Good luck

[Betcha]

Betcha, I will be attempting a VBAC at the Mercy Hospital next year as a public patient and they have been nothing but supportive and positive about it.

I suggest you have a chat to them about it when you're in next before making any decisions. Good luck

Thanks! I had my second appointment with them 3 or 4 weeks ago and did have a big chat with the midwife. It was pretty re-assuring but there is still part of me that is concerned that they are just telling me what I want to hear for now and then will push the medical side of things later.
I've decided that it doesn't make a huge difference where I go, as long as I am educated and willing to push to get the birth I want.

When are you due?

[RhiannonJ]

I would love to know if you were sucessful in your VBAC at the Mercy?
Rhi

[Betcha]

I would love to know if you were sucessful in your VBAC at the Mercy?
Rhi

Unfortunately, no. I was not successful. I'm sure plenty of people have had no problems with the Mercy but I will never go back there. The only way I would consider it is with a private midwife or a VERY experienced Doula.
If you have any specific questions let me know. I was, and still am, devastated about how it all went so if I can help someone avoid a similar experience I'd be happy to.