VBAC…we got your back
April is not only the true sign that Spring is REALLY HERE!!! But it is also Cesarean Awareness Month. So I wanted to share a little about an email we received that blew me away. It was from a woman with amazing foresight and an incredible respect for birth. She was not yet pregnant with her second child, but since her first was born via c-section she wanted to start collecting information and preparing for a future VBAC. A VBAC is a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. The reason for a cesarean can vary from elected to emergency. Most all fall in the middle and are due to presentation of the baby. This means the mother and her body have in no way “failed” in their ability to give birth, but that baby ‘s preferred position was one that the health care provider wouldn’t deliver a baby in. Or perhaps baby’s presentation just wasn’t lined up right and no amount of pushing was going to get baby out. Doesn’t mean baby was too big or you were too small, just not the right way and didn’t fit well.
Contemplating a VBAC can bring up doubt in your ability to give birth. You have basically been told “Your body can not give birth”. This may have had an affect on your ability to breastfeed and bond with your baby. It might have even made you question your ability to parent. C-section is not just a surgical birth, but a completely abnormal event that takes your body and hormones a second or two to recalibrate to what just happened. One minute you are pregnant and the next you are not. Make sure you give yourself a bit of a break regarding how you felt and thought after baby was born.
In planning for your next birth your health care provider might say you may have a “trial of labor” which always makes me think “guilty or innocent” or that your labor is on trial to see if it will pass or fail. You may begin to think… “Well, we didn’t do so good last time…perhaps we should just skip the disappointment and pain…” but ladies this is not what labor is for. When labor begins on it’s own it signifies that the baby is ready to be born. It has released the hormones to begin labor. Throughout the labor, the baby’s system gets the stimulation it needs and the hormones released during the process, to make a better transition to life outside the womb. Being born though the birth canal also helps to remove the excess fluid off the lungs and gets baby ready to breathe. Labor and birth are significant to all of you.
Even as a doula and knowing I would have a doula at my birth, I still had a lot of mental preparation to do for my VBAC. I KNEW I could do it, but I didn’t believe I could do it sometimes. There is totally a difference. It was told to me and I believe it, that the number one reason for a successful VBAC is your Health Care Provider’s confidence that you can do it. This is paramount. Even if they mean to or not, they have such subtle powers of causing you to doubt yourself. Make sure you have someone who believes in you and trust the birth process. I surrounded myself with wonderful and supportive people and trusted my body. The birth was life changing. Internal, external, eternal.
Here at BBC, we are doulas who have had VBAC and supported VBACs. Julia and I are excited for you to give birth vaginally but we understand the emotional and physical impact a previous cesarean can have on a birth and we will do everything in our power to help you. Educate yourself and allow yourself to be helped through this amazing experience.
A wonderful source of information is the International Cesarean Awareness Network website. Please use their site http://www.ican-online.org/ and contact them for further support and advice. They are a great group of people. As always, you know our support is only a phone call or email away.
