About 8 months ago we asked our Hopeful VBAC Momma, Allie to describe her thoughts and feeling as she prepared for the birth of her second child.  I was curious now, 8 months and one big beautiful healthy daughter later, how she felt about her birth experience. Did she get her vaginal birth after cesarian (VBAC)? Was it worth it?

Allie’s VBAC STory

Allie:

I spent just about my entire pregnancy obsessing over my hopes to attempt a VBAC.

I did everything I could to stay healthy through pregnancy, took part in regular exercise, self-care, acupuncture, massages, and got as much sleep as I could get with a 2 year old running the home front. I listened to hypnotherapy, affirmations… anything to silence my family’s and maybe my own doubts. I also hired a doula.

Baby B was due in the middle of July. I went well “overdue” with my first pregnancy, so I was mentally prepared to do the same with my second pregnancy. My (new) OB told me that he would let me stay pregnant for as long as I needed to be. We had already scheduled my first nonstress test one week out from my due date. My 39 week check up fell on a Wednesday. My OB had a vacation planned that weekend, but after checking my progress and finding no dilation, he told me he wasn’t worried about missing the birth.

I had two acupuncture appointments that week, the second of which was on Thursday, the day after my progress-free check up. I felt the first twinge of cramping while I was laying on the acupuncture table. My contractions grew stronger, and closer together, averaging about 8-10 minutes apart… for two days. On the second day of contractions, I went to the hospital to get checked… and I was 1 cm dilated.

Progress continued to be slow, until 2 am Saturday morning when I woke my husband up from our toddler’s floor and told him I thought it was time to go in. Contractions were about 3 minutes apart and I hadn’t slept in almost three days. After checking into the hospital and going through another progress check. I found out I was 3 cm dilated. With my first labor, I got stuck at 3 cm and never progressed passed that, ultimately leading to my c-section.

My doula and I strapped on our walking shoes and walked those hospital corridors all night. I can’t even explain what it was like to be checked again later and find out I had progressed past 3 cm. After my c-section, I felt like my body had failed me. Like it didn’t know what it was doing. For so many months of my pregnancy, I was so afraid of stalling out at 3 cm again. What a victorious feeling to get to 4, then 5 and 6 centimeters!

Labor continued, drug-free for another 12 hours. By the time we were approaching early afternoon, I was starting to get scared. I was in so much pain and so, so tired. At one point during labor I was between contractions (for no more than a minute), standing and resting my head on my bed, when I was suddenly awoken by my knees buckling out beneath me because I had fallen asleep.

Turns out, baby was sunny side up, and somewhat crooked. We just couldn’t quite get baby to come down. I started getting a little hysterical with fear that I was 50-some hours into labor, my cervix was stuck, and this (large) baby wasn’t even in the right position. The doula rocked my hips with a long piece of fabric tied around me and she moved me into some fairly awkward positions. I tried and flexed, but could start to feel myself mentally tapping out. I began worrying about the very real chance of going into the operating room without an epidural in, and needing to be knocked completely out to deliver the baby. I imagined baby getting stuck and needing forceps or a vacuum to get the baby out. I had made up my mind that I was giving in and was ready to get an epidural at 7 cm.

And then I slept. After the epidural was administered, I slept for 2 hours. By this time, it was six o’clock and a new OB had just come on duty. I was barely waking up as she walked into the room to introduce herself. She asked me two questions. She asked if she could check progress, and then asked me if I was ready to push. I couldn’t believe what was happening as I watched her suit up with her gloves and teal coat. I was absolutely terrified that this was the moment I’d been waiting for and what if I couldn’t do it?

The hospital at which I delivered offered a “walking epidural”, meaning I could still feel contractions and get up and move around, it just took the edge off of the worst pains. Fortunately, this also meant I could tell when I needed to push. After explaining what I needed to do (and feeling like a total first time, clueless mom), I pushed. It took twenty minutes of pushing, and out came our beautiful baby. My husband was in position to “catch” the baby and put her on my chest. We didn’t find out the sex of the baby during pregnancy, so at first glance, I instantly saw it was a baby girl. Miss Izabelle Patricia was placed on my chest.  I can’t even explain the feeling of making eye contact with her for the first time – like we were two souls who found each other. Our baby girl was born on her due date, after 58 hours of labor, weighing 9 lbs. 8 oz.

“If I had any advice for a mama hoping to VBAC, it would be to educate yourself as much as you can. Find a provider you trust, and don’t be afraid to ask what their success rates are. Take care of yourself, and trust your body. Know that every birth story is different, and there aren’t any medals given out in child birth. I had to remind myself that the goal of my delivery was to have a healthy baby. If that meant getting an epidural to let my body rest in order to have the energy to push that baby out, then that was the right choice for me.”