but planned for a VBA2C...
Well, it's been a month since our little girl was born and I've been amazed at how different all of the births have been in our 'May group'.
I was really hoping for a VBA2C this time around (DS1 was induced and ended in an emerg C/S, we tried VBAC with DS2 and ended in another emerg c.s). I had to shop around to find somebody who supported VBA2C, as I was told after DS2 that the hospital would make me have an elect c.s if I went back there. I found a lovely private obs (after a horrible appt at a different hospital and then 8 or 9 phone calls) who was really supportive, along with her 3 colleagues. We also had our doula on board again to help us.
I invested quite a bit of time and energy on acupuncture and chiro throughout the pregnancy, healing work and listened to my hypobirthing CD's etc. This pregnancy was probably the better out of the three, with chiro work keeping the pelvic instability at bay. I noticed massive kankles towards the end of third trimester and had my blood pressure checked etc, all fine. At our 40 week appt, DH came with me and we intended to have lunch and see a movie afterwards.
Baby was fully engaged and I'd started to dilate. As I was a few days over, she did a stretch and sweep and could feel the baby's head right there.
This was before we realised my blood pressure was through the roof. Then discovered that there was protein in the urine. Ho hum, pre-eclampsia. We weren't seeing a movie that afternoon. Instead, we were admitted to hospital for monitoring and stayed overnight, with a c.s scheduled for first thing in the morning. Of all three bubs, this was our smallest and the only one which had fully engaged by 40 weeks. I really felt like a VBAC was possible.
Anyway, I had a sleepless night and a narky midwife who didn't help with my anxiety. The c.s was actually a much better experience than the previous two, much more relaxed, I hadn't been in labour for hours prior etc. The obs and back up Dr both said that the previous scar tissue was paper thin and that they could see the fluid underneath and that it may have been better that I hadn't tried to labour. I remember seeing a lovely woman for healing during my pregnancy, who had told me that babies decide on the way that they want to be born (and I was like WHAT??? Why have all mine decided on caesars?), but looking back, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't labour with this one (?)
Because my obs had time to book me in the next morning, I was considered 'elect' which meant I got assigned a midwife who came into recovery with us and I got to breastfeed our girl as soon as I got there. Which is something that i didn't get to do with our first two. It made such a difference to have a supportive team around me, with an obs who was keen for me to VBAC and gave me a lot of freedom, which so many other Dr's and hospitals wouldn't have done, that I didn't feel so disappointed this time around with another c.s. I think if I'd been forced into a c/s just for policy reasons, I'd be left feeling pretty resentful and always wondering 'what if'? I guess this was the only c.s out of three where it was for a real medical reason and not 'failure to progress' or more like failure to fit into a hospital's timeframe for birthing.
I wouldn't have changed a thing and was glad that I tried to VBAC again. Oh yeah, and we got to finally meet our little girl! She's going well at home now and starting to chunk up on my milk :) Way excited, as I'd had low milk supply with my previous two and they struggled to put weight on.
I still champion VBAC for anybody who is considering it. Like our doula said, it's the journey and not the outcome that matters and our journey was full of empowerment and time spent working on myself and not feeling like I was pushed into a caesar unneccesarily.
