you actually get to choose what you do and dont want in terms of monitoring. hospitals will keep that quiet, but it is the case.

as arimeh mentioned uterine rupture risk for a VBAC is really low; in fact it is far more likely to happen in an induced first birth than in a VBAC. i recommend doing some reseaech on your own and then you will be really confident in asking for the type of monitoring that actually suits and benefits you and baby.

there are some great articles here on BB and also on other sites like caesarean network australia (they have a great little website with some fantastic resources and papers etc).

To be totally honest my only real bit of advice would be to look into hiring either a doula or independent midwife (in hospital midwives are largely bound to support hospital protocol not your interests for example...they are different). the wealth of support they offer to you and to your partner/family is truly amazing and backed by a plethora of research that shows better baby and maternal health outcomes.

In terms of natural pain relief, depending on what you choose to monitor labour you can use the shower, birth ball etc. Have you considered a calmbirth course? (i highly recommend them...i loved doing it and it really helped both myself and my DH).