VBA2C

[Dreamofpink]

I would love to hear of any experiences of a VBA2C or VBAMC.

DS1 was born by ECS at 30 weeks due to severe pre-term pre-eclampsia as induction was far too dangerous and not an option. I tried for a VBAC with DS2 but after a rather painful sweep at 40 weeks my waters broke and I never made it past 2cm dilated. This time around, my consultant is willing to support me in a VBA2C but I have a C-section booked for December 17th - 12 days after my due date. I am totally against any induction as I know it increases the risk of uterine rupture and my consultant is happy with that decision. I have the option to elect for a C-section at any time and will see him again at 36 weeks to make sure I'm still happy with my plan. As long as I go into labour myself, I have a good chance of a VBA2C. Well, I hope so anyway!

Can any of you give me any advice or tips at all please?

Please share any stories, I'm all ears!

[I Love Ladybugs]

I just want to offer my support and admiration of you!! When the time comes, I will send you all my extra dialation, progresion and ELV's possible!!!!

Hope that others give you some great stories and tips!!

[Dreamofpink]

Thank you Ladybugs!

[Dreamofpink]

BTW, what's ELV's? :shrug: I have a lot to learn about labour, methinks!

[I Love Ladybugs]

BTW, what's ELV's? :shrug: I have a lot to learn about labour, methinks!

Easy Labour Vibes!!! You need a tonne of them!

[Dreamofpink]

Yes, absolutely!! By the tonne please! :D
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[Am3a]

DOP - I'm in absolute awe! I've just booked in for my 3rd c-section. I've never ever felt a contraction, so would love to experience labour... But my ob is so against vba2c! I have a narrow...um... not sure what it's called... But my kids can't engage.

Best of luck to you - I think your determination is fantastic.

[Wanting-a-girl]

Very proud of you :D I love how you tried the first vbac but to try again is truley amazing :) I hate with the passion when people don't even care to try... My cousin had a c section with her first and then refused to try vbac with her second cause she doesn't want to ruin her vagina! Are you kidding me!

Any ways just wante to let you know you are doing an awesome thing!

[Pearl327]

Best of luck dreaming. I am hoping to have a VBAC in the next couple of days. I never made it past 2cm either with my DD. she was posterior which can cause stalled labours. This one is currently left occuput anterior which is the easiest position to labour in so I am hopeful my VBAC will work. I will let you know how it goes

[RKT Mama]

I can't talk for VBA2C as I only had one C/S but I have had 3 births since then. My VBAC was a bit horrid as I was silly enough to keep working full time until and even during labour so I was so exhausted I needed an early epidural just to cope. Got my vaginal birth though which was great.
3rd and 4th time I had wonderful water birth with just a bit of gas. Had an IV and continuous fetal monitoring just in case but all went very smoothly.
I work in a maternity unit so i care for VBACs a lot. My advice is to avoid an epidural, learn some techniques to cope with labour pain ( I love the "Pink kit" even though I think Noah used it on the ark), keep upright and keep active.
My 3rd was over a pound bigger than the baby that they had to C/S out because he was "too big"

From what I understand your risks of scar rupture increase slightly and your chances of success decrease slightly but your risks attached to a repeat C/S increase dramatically for every one you have.
Good luck

[Dreamofpink]

DOP - I'm in absolute awe! I've just booked in for my 3rd c-section. I've never ever felt a contraction, so would love to experience labour... But my ob is so against vba2c! I have a narrow...um... not sure what it's called... But my kids can't engage.

Best of luck to you - I think your determination is fantastic.

Thank you so much for your support! Were you ever allowed to try naturally or were you advised against it from the start? I know what you mean, I did experience some contractions but not enough to actually make a big enough difference. After having DS1 I hated the comments I used to get from some women, trying to be helpful, who would try to assure me that I'd not missed out on anything as labour was no fun. It's what we're designed to do.

However, I do resent the media going on all the time about the rates of c-section going up. If it wasn't for safe c-sections, I wouldn't be here right now and neither would ds1. I wish you the very best of luck with your section, do you have a date yet?

[Dreamofpink]

Very proud of you :D I love how you tried the first vbac but to try again is truley amazing :) I hate with the passion when people don't even care to try... My cousin had a c section with her first and then refused to try vbac with her second cause she doesn't want to ruin her vagina! Are you kidding me!

Any ways just wante to let you know you are doing an awesome thing!

Aww, thanks so much wanting-a-girl!! Your words mean a lot to me, I am scared to death of uterine rupture but I have to make sure that I go into labour on my own in the 12 days that they're giving me past my due date. Any tips?! I'm interested in RL tea & EPO for the last few weeks, but not sure how much, when etc.

I can't believe the attitude of your cousin, that's just crazy! The trouble is, when you have a choice about c-sections, doctors don't tend to tell you the risks that go up with each section only the risks associated with rupture during a VBAC. BTW, with that comment I DO NOT include anyone that has to have a section for a particular medical condition, as I was one of those first-time round :wink:

I follow your due date group often and am looking forward to some babies towards the end of the summer! Best of luck and can't wait to see some pics of little Lennon.

[Dreamofpink]

Best of luck dreaming. I am hoping to have a VBAC in the next couple of days. I never made it past 2cm either with my DD. she was posterior which can cause stalled labours. This one is currently left occuput anterior which is the easiest position to labour in so I am hopeful my VBAC will work. I will let you know how it goes

Best of luck to you too Pearl!! It's so exciting to see the babies being born now in your due date thread. I really hope that you have an easy birth and your little man comes along soon to join your family. I can't wait to read your story! I'll be thinking of you x

[Dreamofpink]

I can't talk for VBA2C as I only had one C/S but I have had 3 births since then. My VBAC was a bit horrid as I was silly enough to keep working full time until and even during labour so I was so exhausted I needed an early epidural just to cope. Got my vaginal birth though which was great.
3rd and 4th time I had wonderful water birth with just a bit of gas. Had an IV and continuous fetal monitoring just in case but all went very smoothly.
I work in a maternity unit so i care for VBACs a lot. My advice is to avoid an epidural, learn some techniques to cope with labour pain ( I love the "Pink kit" even though I think Noah used it on the ark), keep upright and keep active.
My 3rd was over a pound bigger than the baby that they had to C/S out because he was "too big"

From what I understand your risks of scar rupture increase slightly and your chances of success decrease slightly but your risks attached to a repeat C/S increase dramatically for every one you have.
Good luck

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it. I've never heard of the Pink Kit, but my friend has offered to do a hypnobirthing course for me & dh (she's fully trained). I'm following a pregnancy yoga DVD twice a week and can't believe how strong I feel this time around. I was quite overweight with ds2 and suffered a lot of pelvic pain, by this stage I was already wearing a maternity belt. This time I started out so much lighter due to LE and I feel great for it! I really hope that if I stay as active as possible, it'll help immensely, but I'll heed your advice not to overdo it.

With the continous monitoring, were you quite immobile? Ah, I just re-read that those were water births, sounds amazing! I think it's fantastic that you've achieved 3 VBACs, I'll certainly remember the advice about no epidural.

My consultant quipped that the midwives on duty in the first few weeks of December will really love knowing that I might show up at anytime in labour (ha, not!) It's tough luck really, as I'm going to try my best - again. My consultant did mention that he always tends to book c-sections quite late and then they're not needed, so he's hoping I'm one of those. :FX:

[Dreamofpink]

Bump for anymore stories/advice?! :D

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[Pearl327]

Hi dreamofpink.

I said I would let you know how I got on

I didn't get my VBAC in the end. I went into labour on my due date and laboured at home all day until contractions were every 5 mins and headed into the hospital at midnight where I was 1-2 cm but waters still intact so they sent me to the pre labour ward where I stayed as upright and active as possible Until I got to 2 1/2 cm and then I took some pethadine to help me get some rest and slept for about an hour and a half. My ob came around in the morning and while I was still 2 1/2cm he felt my waters had gone but I had not noticed this. I was then transferred to the labour ward and during an exam there the midwife tickled baby's head and he moved to release a flood of waters. I then laboured in the ball breathing through my contractions which were coming thick and fast for about 6hrs before I couldn't take it any more. I felt unbelievable pressure in my back passage and I couldn't sit or stand or lie down to ease it so I asked for the epi which I got before I was examined again and found to be only 2cm.
At that point I knew I was on the way for another section and was relieved when my consultant came around and suggested the same thing. The midwives were very supportive of me and said that there was nothing more that they could have suggested I do to speed things up.

But I was mentally prepared for a section being a possible outcome this time around and now 3 days later I am feeling really good about it all. It was not my ideal outcome but it was not the worst case scenario either and I am delighted to have my little man here with me which was the main goal anyway.

[fivebabies]

I am curious to hear stories too. My last 2 babies were c/s deliveries due to breech presentation. Would've loved to have done a vbac but baby wouldn't flip.

My sister recently had a vbac after a c/s with triplets almost 4 years earlier and it actually did mess up her nether regions...seriously. She needs reconstructive surgery for function. :( That's certainly not normal of course.

If I'm lucky enough to have another and if that baby were to miraculously be head down I would love a vba2c! My repeat c/s was way worse than the first. :(

Good luck to you!!! I hope it works out for you!!!

[Dreamofpink]

Hi dreamofpink.

I said I would let you know how I got on

I didn't get my VBAC in the end. I went into labour on my due date and laboured at home all day until contractions were every 5 mins and headed into the hospital at midnight where I was 1-2 cm but waters still intact so they sent me to the pre labour ward where I stayed as upright and active as possible Until I got to 2 1/2 cm and then I took some pethadine to help me get some rest and slept for about an hour and a half. My ob came around in the morning and while I was still 2 1/2cm he felt my waters had gone but I had not noticed this. I was then transferred to the labour ward and during an exam there the midwife tickled baby's head and he moved to release a flood of waters. I then laboured in the ball breathing through my contractions which were coming thick and fast for about 6hrs before I couldn't take it any more. I felt unbelievable pressure in my back passage and I couldn't sit or stand or lie down to ease it so I asked for the epi which I got before I was examined again and found to be only 2cm.
At that point I knew I was on the way for another section and was relieved when my consultant came around and suggested the same thing. The midwives were very supportive of me and said that there was nothing more that they could have suggested I do to speed things up.

But I was mentally prepared for a section being a possible outcome this time around and now 3 days later I am feeling really good about it all. It was not my ideal outcome but it was not the worst case scenario either and I am delighted to have my little man here with me which was the main goal anyway.

Hi Pearl, firstly many congratulations on the birth of your gorgeous little boy!! Thank you so much for coming back to update on your birth. It certainly sounds like you gave a VBAC a really good go. It's a shame that you ended up having another c-section, but great that you were at peace with it before it happened.

As you say, safety is absolutely paramount and I know that I'll be putting that first if things don't go to plan for me. It sounds as if your midwives were brilliant and that's always important for you to feel supported. You know you gave it your all and that's all anyone can ask of you, I'm so glad that you feel good about it all.

I hope that you're settling into life with your new addition, how has your daughter taken to him? Enjoy these early precious days and thank you once again!