My VBA2C in a private hospital with a private OB and an Independant Midwife!!
I haven't posted in here for a while but I see there are quite a few ladies going for a VBA2C so I wanted to post my birth story in the hope that it helps some of you to acheive your VBAC's.
I can't believe I actually got my VBA2C.
A bit of back ground, DD1 was breech so elective CS in Feb. of 2006, VBAC was discussed at my 6 week check up. Pregnant with DS I ummed and ahhhed about vbac, but just couldn?t get passed the uterine rupture issue. I had read maybe 1 unhelpful book and asked a few general questions but still didn?t help me decide what to do. I booked in my CS date for 39+2 and decided if I went into labour before that I would give vbac a go. 2 weeks before my CS date my brother was killed in a car accident and so I was very happy to go with a CS as it was what I knew and there would be no surprises. That was July of 2007. Thinking about #3 I decided I would look into vbac cos what if later on down the track after I was finished having kids, I regretted not vbacing with DS. I never had a burning desire to have a vaginal birth and was ok with the fact that I had had CS's and had great recoveries with both, but what if I did regret it later on??
We knew we would be going for a gap of about 2 years with #3, so before I got pregnant I read everything I could find on vbac and joined a few forums and asked a lot of questions. Silent Knife was a big turning point for me and after reading that I knew I would definitely be VBACing. I got in touch with a local independent midwife, asked her if she supported VBA2C and I went to see my OB to see what his opinion was. Surprisingly he was supportive. 2 months later I was pregnant. I got my hospital records and went to see the IM. I wasn?t 100% comfortable with home birth so I chose to go with my private OB and hospital that I had had both my CS?s in, and use my IM as support at home for as long as possible and then take her with me to hospital.
After seeing her I was at ease with my decision to VBA2C and didn?t look back, although all through my pregnancy I was waiting for something, some reason that I would not be able to labour. I had a breech baby at 26 weeks and thought ?oh no not again? but by 32 weeks she was head down. My BP was borderline high from about 33 weeks up until the final 2 weeks when it went back to normal. I just kept waiting for something. Creeping closer to my due date I worried I would not go into labour at all and I would run out of time. I had never laboured before so I didn?t know how far over I would go.
At 39+4 I had my first round of induction acupuncture, the next day I had an OB appointment and had an internal that showed I was not favourable at all, ?long, hard and tightly closed? were his remarks. The day after that I had more acupuncture and made sure I went for a big long walk afterward.
Now the birth:
I started having mild period pain contractions on the Saturday night (40+1) before bed after going for a big walk, doing some shopping and mowing the lawn. I took some panadol and slept most of the night without any hassles.
I then had the same contractions all day Sunday too about 20-10 mins apart and again went for a big walk to see if I could get things a bit more intense. Slept ok till about 3.30 am when I had to get up to go to the toilet. My undies and Jammies were wet but the bed wasn?t which was strange. I knew I didn?t wet myself so I figured I must be having a leek or something. They contractions continued all day Monday and started becoming more painful but still not any more regular. I was also loosing my plug and leaking just a bit. No sleep on Monday night cos the contractions had ramped up and become more painful. Put the TENS on and that didn't help much. The pulsing was nice between contractions and helped me relax but the pain of the contraction was too much for the TENS to distract me from. The contractions were still 10 mins apart.
By Tuesday morning the contractions had become still more painful and continued about 10 mins apart. Rang my IM and she came around at 11.30 and did an internal and I was 4cm dilated :thumbs: I couldn't believe it. She went off and did another antenatal visit and said to give her a call when things changed.
3.30pm I got in the birth pool as the contrax were now in my back too but still fairly random being anywhere from 5-10 mins apart. The water took the back pain away for a while which was great. Got out of the pool at 5.30 ish for some dinner and as soon as I got out of the pool they were coming almost on top of each other so I called my IM and she said she would be there about 7.30. I ate a bit of dinner and I got back in the pool and waited for her to arrive. About 7.45pm she arrived with another mw (her extra pair of hands) and the just asked a few questions and observed me for a while. After about an hour we decided I had to get out of the pool so things could ramp up another notch as nothing had changed since I had gotten into the pool. I had another internal and I was 7 almost 8cm dilated. I laboured for about another hour and then decided if I was going to hospital now was the time cos I wouldn't be able to cope with the car ride otherwise.
Got to hospital about 10pm ish and went to the labour suite. The mw on at the hospital was fantastic and let me do what ever I had too. They really took note of my birth plan and respected all my wishes. (I had negotiated with my OB to have as little intervention as possible.) She even let my IM take the lead and stayed in the back ground. I didn?t have to get on the bed to have any monitoring although she did use the monitor to listen to the baby?s heat beat by just placing it on my tummy, never strapping it on me. There was never any mention of the cannula or any internals. She just let me get on with it. I?m pretty sure that?s due to my IM being there and my OB okaying my requests in my birth plan.
Things were full on in the pain aspect of things. Things that worked before to help me get through each contraction were just not working now and I had my moment of self pity and thinking I can?t do this anymore. I even had a cry about it all. DH and I got in the shower and I just kept saying this isn?t working and I can?t do anything about it. I started talking pain relief with him and he quietly reminded me that I didn?t really want that. That?s when I let him have it and yelled at him, cos after about 3 hours of being in hospital nothing had changed and I was over it. That?s when we got out of the shower and I started talking about the gas or some pethadine. Both my IM and the hospital mw just looked at me and didn?t say a thing. So then I said alright I think it?s time to break my waters then. So I got the hospy mw to do an internal which showed I was fully dilated and she couldn?t feel any cervix in the way. My IM asked her if she had to get my OB to break my waters, but she sort of just said not if it accidentally happens to break while I am doing the internal. So she accidentally broke my waters. After that I maybe had 1-2mins of relief where they said go have a wee. Well while I was on the toilet the pushing urge came and was uncontrollable. I think I maybe pushed for 30 - 45 mins (I have no idea and was later told it was 20 mins) which was mostly on the toilet, all the while swearing under my breath, saying ouch repeatedly and screaming out (uncontrollably)with each surge. I put my hand down there to feel a couple of times and her head was soft and felt like a long squishy sponge to touch. After just pushing with the surges I soon figured out that I could push for a bit longer than the contraction lasted if I wanted too. So I did. I was feeling the ring of fire I can tell you. All of a sudden I was yelling at them that her head was coming. To which they all told me I had to go get on the bed, to which I replied no way I cant move. But I went, mostly carried by my DH and the mw?s. I got on the bed on all fours and leaned on the raised head of the bed. I had my DH in a head lock and had both our heads buried in the pillows. She soon started crowing and everyone was yelling at me to stop pushing and start panting, but the urge was just uncontrollable. I tried my hardest to pant through the urge but sometimes I just couldn?t. I felt her head come out and they were again telling me to pant but I couldn?t and according to my sister she just shot out and the mw had to scramble to catch her. So Eliza was born. They put her through my legs and told me to pick her up. So I checked to see what sex she was, announced it to my DH and then picked her up and turned around.
The OB arrived at that point to deliver the placenta and stitch me up. I had a small internal tear and had torn my labia. I got to see the placenta which I never did with my 2 CS, and I brang it home to bury it on our land that we will be building on next year.
I had to have the injection an hour or so after the birth due to some heavy bleeding and I also had to have a catheter cos I couldn?t wee. All is good now though. I stayed in hospital over night and came home the next day.
I did have a couple of the ?why am I doing this? thoughts during the labour when things got hard but I just kept thinking to myself ?women do this every day, it?s no big deal?. I had thoughts about my scar maybe twice during the whole labour, but only in the context of ?is there pain there?, never ?it might rupture?. There was so much more to think about and concentrate on.
I am so very proud of myself and my DH was fantastic support even though I did give him a bit of a verbal bash and had him in a headlock while I was pushing. I firmly believe I could not have acheived my VBA2C without my IM and her support and am eternaly greatfull to her. I did get a bit of an ear bashing from my OB as he said I should have been in hospital sooner than I was, but my plan the whole way through my pregnancy had been to stay home as long as possible, which I did. I think he was a bit annoyed he missed the birth.
So there you have it. The Successful VBA2C of Eliza Daphne, 7lb 13oz, on the 1st of July 2009 in a private hospital with a private OB and an Independent Midwife.
