Cara's arrival (vba2c!) 31st May

I am SO HAPPY I changed hospitals!! Cara was almost born via c-section on the 25th of May at the Logan hospital. I changed to the Mater Mother's (public) hospital... Here is my story! Thank you to all the wonderful staff at that hospital!

Cara is just beautiful! Labour started out on her due date (3oth), with what I thought were just more intense braxton hicks. I scrubbed the floor (as my Mum told me to do) after lunch and went for a walk around 4pm. Had lots of raspberry leaf tea. By 5pm I was having contractions every 15 min or so...but wasn't sure until I got backache with it. They quickly ramped up to VERY BLOODY painful by around 8pm (worse than Ronan's labour and a lot of backache..oww!!). By 10.30pm they were 5 min apart, so we headed off to hospital. Strapped to a bed in the assessment centre of the hospital for half hour (agony!!), then off to the birth unit. WONDERFUL midwife!! I had monitoring on, but was allowed to walk near the bed with it. I sat on birthing ball, and I stood up and rocking in my partner's arms. Had MASSIVE pressure on my backside! (doesn't help I've had haemorroid issues this week). I felt I needed to push soon, so I got helped up on the bed, leaning over a bean bag on my knees. (midwives were surprised it was happening so fast!). About 1-1.15am my waters broke away, and after about 20 hours of controlled pushing (I didn't want to stretch it or force myself when the head was crowning, so I let it slip back once or twice), out came CARA!! OMG! I can't believe I did it!! My 2nd VBAC!! And....NO TEAR!!!! (Epi-No helped me I think!) I had a great midwife who just said "Let your body do what it's telling you to do" as I was pushing her out (the PERFECT words to say). Did not rush me!! AWESOME!. And they even let my partner FILM the birth!! So I have it on video!! (he even showed me digital pics of her crowning to spur me on!). I have some bloody photos LOL....will keep them for personal use hehe. Won't shock the kodak people hehe.

Cara arrived at 1.35am on the 31st of may and weighed 8lb 4o (3.71kg), 55cm long. 36cm head circ.

I have breastfeeding issues...sore nipples again.. But, I've been there twice before (all girls are slack feeders at first! My son got it right lol).

My bum is a little sore, but no grazes or anything on the vaggie LOL. Unbelievable...

I felt like quite a hero in hospital...many midwives said how it was almost unheard of for someone to have a natural delivery after 2 sections. And I had one midwife (pregnant with 2nd) asking me advice!!! (on continuous monitoring for vbac etc). I just told her at the end "Believe in your body".

Congrats! I went through Mater Mothers (public) and the middies were great. One of mine was pregnant too!

Well done on getting the birth you wanted!

It's an awesome hospital isn't it? I had great middies too!! (I wonder if the middie you saw was the same one..young 20s girl with blondish hair?).

The middy that delivered Cara; Brenda (in her late 40s/50?)..was just wonderful!! They were supposed to put a canullar in my arm, but it all happened so quickly, they didn't bother hehe

So nice to have a totally midwife run birth. I did not have to see a Dr at any point during my birth or hospital stay. :-D Midwife delivered my son also in 1999 (at Logan), but I needed a dr to insert the drip of syntocin (to start labour up again and as waters had broken), and he also stitched me up as I tore a little with first vbac.

I'm off to get some sleep now. Giving birth in the early hours (1.35am) was first for me. I've had a morning birth (c-section breech baby-Laura 8.54am), afternoon birth (c-section breech baby-Yasmin 3.19pm-got pushed back due to other emergency c-sections that day!), evening birth (my son Ronan vbac 8.01pm).

Yep, she was young, blonde, and this was her second bub. Hooray to all the MMH middies out there!

Rest well Cathy, and congrats again!

Congratulations :clap: You did an awesome job.

Thanks for giving the rest of us attempting a VBA2C hope that it can happen ;)

COngratulations Cathy,

Sounds like it was a wonderful experience for you. Welcome to the outside world little Cara.

NAe x

Congratulations Cathy!

You did an AWESOME job to beat the system and get the birth that you so deserved!! Your an amazing, strong woman!

Enjoy your babymoon hun!
x

Congratulations!!

What an amazing story, thankyou, it's just what those of us hoping for VBACs need to hear! Well done

And welcome Cara :D

Well done and congratulations !
Take care
xxoo

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I am SO HAPPY I changed hospitals!!

Won't shock the kodak people hehe.

Cara arrived at 1.35am on the 31st of may and weighed 8lb 4o (3.71kg), 55cm long. 36cm head circ.

I have breastfeeding issues...sore nipples again.. But, I've been there twice before (all girls are slack feeders at first! My son got it right lol).

My bum is a little sore, but no grazes or anything on the vaggie LOL. Unbelievable...

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Woohoo on changing hospitals!, also what a big head and no TEARS, clever girl

Boys always know what to do with BOOBS :LOL

Congrats on it all going well!

You did such a fantastic job, Cathy! Well done! (So pleased that all your hard preparation work with the epi no paid off! A bit jealous of you tbh, lol!)
Brilliant story, thanks for sharing with us. And enjoy baby Cara :)

A bit jealous??? I'm a lot jealous :lol:I tried for VBA2C did'nt get there I'm afraid...:wall: good on you though, big congrats on a job well done, welcome little Cara (a gorgeous name).

Well done :D

Congratulations :D

Great birth story Cathy. I am so happy that you got the birth you wanted

Cathy, I'm so happy you changed to the mater and got the VBA2C you were hoping for. Congrats! And well done :D

Congrats on getting the VBA2C - it is so great to hear. Also nice that the middy was so supportive of letting your body doing it and not pushing you to do anything you didn't wanted

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congrats Cathy!
Glad to see the Mater pulled through for you. I knew they would :)

Wow, just a fantastic story ... thank you so much for sharing it with us all :D

... I too tell women to have a lot of faith in their body as it's just an amazing tool we have ;)

Wow! Well done! Though that doesn't quite seem big enough for it. And welcome to the world Cara!

You had every right to feel like a hero after the birth sweetness! You did fantastic and so did Cara. What a good girl finally turning head down bum up for you! Hopefully she is just as obedient now that she is out in the big wide world :lol:

Cathy - after knowing how important a VBAC2 was for you, I am so pleased to read your birth story, and so proud of you, what a fanstastic experience for you - Yaaaah Cara!!

Naomi
x

Thanks girls! :)

I didn't come out totally unscathed. I had haemorroid probs before the birth. So I'm dealing with a sore butt right now lol. I'm still SO happy I had her naturally though! My partner filmed the birth too!! (we didn't plan to, but we had the camera there, so thought, why not?) It's awesome to watch!

Hi again Cathy, you just sound on such a high. How awesome! And bub is just gorgeous BTW :)

Just a quick Q though, while you are mentioning haemorriods. I suffer from them slightly and they were bought on just by the streses of my last pregnancy, Nothing to do with birth because I had an elective cs. I'm wanting a VBAC more than ever next time around but I do wonder how much worse actually pushing a baby out could make the condition? So I guess what I'm saying is would you much rather have bad haemorriods to deal with as opposed to dealing with the emotional and physical recovery of a repeat caesarean? I'm assuming the answer is yes but would love to hear your point of view.

I got my very first ever pile pushing my son out (first vbac). Was a bit of a shock at first, but you arm yourself with prunes and roid cream and a week later you feel better! I have had a few probs in the years since though, and had to have one of them cut once (it could not be pushed back up..sorry if TMI for others lol).

This time (this pregnancy) I got a bit constipated and suffered haemorroids again. I get them when I am a bit run down/stressed/not going to the toilet properly. When I was in labour the pain in my backside was pretty intense (she was a bigger baby too). I did have them a bit worse this time around, but I already had roids a week or two before I gave birth..which didn't help!! They have been a bit painful at times...but seem to be getting better. Just make you feel a bit miserable. But I would STILL rather have that then recover from a caesarean! The whole birth was just WONDERFUL! I was able to reach around and grab bubs myself, hold her in my arms for HOURS, they let the cord pulse for quite a while (I didn't even ask for this..but in hindsight..I think that's great!). Bub was alert and had her first breastfeed easily. And to get up and have a HOT shower afterwards.>JUST PURE BLISS!! (funnily enough I ran out of hot water at home while in early labour....this shower was something I longed for that day hehe).

Every day, as I move about the house, going about my daily rituals, drive my car, etc..I am thankful that I didn't have a caesarean again! :-) I hope this helps answer your question!

Thanks Cathy. That definately puts it all into perspective for me. Cara's birth sounds like bliss and I want that! Especially considering I was robbed of experiencing Charli's birth altogether (I needed a general for my caesar)

Glad I could help hon!

Don't forget also the excitment of not knowing when baby will decide to arrive. I loved the fact she got to CHOOSE her birthday! (and she was a sunday baby..you never see weekend elective caesareans!).

Glad I could help hon!

Don't forget also the excitment of not knowing when baby will decide to arrive. I loved the fact she got to CHOOSE her birthday! (and she was a sunday baby..you never see weekend elective caesareans!).

Having a general must have been tough.

Arm yourself with everything possible to have a natural labour. I went all out...raspberry leaf tea, epi-no and evening primrose oil (inserted). I'm sure they all helped! My son's labour (at Logan hospy) was very stop/start and needed a syntocin drip to kick start again (they would not induce or augement my labour at the Mater though).

Yep I sure will be arming myself with those things. I actually bought an EpiNo for last time. I also drank heaps of raspberry leaf tea and had acupuncture to try to bring on labour. Poor bubba had no chance in deciding her own birthday though as OB wanted the caesar done at 38 weeks if I didn't go into labour beforehand. And induction was out of the question because bubs head was still not engaged. I had developed pre-eclampsia late in the pg. In hindsight though I think the cs was unnecessary when it was done cause the PE wasn't severe and bub was born completely healthy with apgars 9 & 9 and her placenta was still completely healthy too.

So was Logan good for your first VBAC? I know I'm better off going public next time if I want a VBAC but I don't like how GC Hosp doesn't have a continuity of care program (except for the birth centre but they wont accept a vbac) but I hear that Logan does have a mid group practice and it would be so beneficial I think to have a known midwife throughout the pg, birth and afterwards.

Well my vbac at Logan was almost 10 years ago now. They were supportive at the time, and I gave birth with just a midwife delivering him. I had shared care with the gp at the time, though this time aroung I went to midwife clinic. The midwife encouraged me to state my case for vba2c there, and I ended up getting referred to the Mater at 34 weeks. The Logan is not a tertiary level hospital like the Mater, but I think they are more supportive of first time vbac. I think you are better off going public if you want a vbac. Though some women beat the statistics I'm sure.

Thank you for sharing your story. I too will be having a vba2c. I am having a home water birth. I believe that my bady CAN do this and your story makes me feel even more certain that this is going to happen for me this time.

Cathy, congratulations on your beutiful baby Cara and the birth you deserved. You did an awesome job and are an inspiration to all of us!

Enjoy your baby and hope that bf gets better for u 2.

Cheers ;)