Attachment Parenting
BetchySprout
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S/O: How many of us planning an unmedicated birth ended in c/s?
BetchySprout
member
Just curious, because of the homebirth post below.
I can't wait to get pregnant again, and have my second chance. I am going to start saving for a doula NOW and if we buy a house before Nextbaby comes and it closer to the hospital, I might just give a homebirth a go.
Was your c/s an emergency one or like mine...not an emergency but not planned? Or was yours planned?
Does anyone know if insurances cover HB MW's?
P.S. Lainie, if you read this, I love that you are hoping for an HBAC!
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Re: S/O: How many of us planning an unmedicated birth ended in c/s?
I obviously can't comment on the c/s part, but I do know a thing or two about insurance and HB!
If you live in Florida you are lucky. You WILL be covered if you have insurance. It's the law (THANK YOU FLORIDA!!!). If you live in California and have a PPO or Medicaid you will also be covered by the law. Woot! But, if you live in Iowa, you may very well be screwed. HBACs are illegal in Iowa. Or, at least, this was the case when I researched this a year ago. Hopefully progress is being made! But anyway, if you want to do an HBAC in Iowa you have to find an "underground" midwife willing to do it (and risk jail time) and pay out of pocket.
In most other states it's up to the individual insurance companies to decide. I highly recommend calling up your provider and asking. If they don't yet, you can advocate and send them the average cost of a home birth versus hospital birth. That's how it gets started!
Dammit, I am a Floridian (really, I am) living in NY. I have been here 5 years now. I will start researching! We are ttc now but AF just got here, and now we have to TTA to avoid June/July/early Aug. due dates. BLEH! Lots of time to plan though.
I was planning an unmedicated birth with my midwives and I laboured at home until about 6 cm then went to the hospital. Then we found her little heart at 181 and rising. In 20 minutes it went to 210, I was at 9 cm when they cut.
I'm still upset.
I am planning an HBAC but am waiting to TTC until February.
I know you are in Canada, do they not allow VBAC unless they are 2 years apart? My doc told me 18 months and I was thankful for that, we want them close together.
I had been planning an unmedicated birth but I ended up with an unplanned c/s. The doctor strongly recommended that because of DD's heartrate, we get her out right away. I kept thinking about it and finally decided that I wasn't going to potentially harm my baby just because I didn't want a c/s. So we went ahead and did the c/s. It actually wasn't so bad.
:raises hand:
Pre-eclampsia with a failed induction here.?
?
They allow VBAC attempts at any time. BUt I was advised 2 years between births. We're being super cautious and waiting 2 years between pregnancies.
ARGH failed induction here, as well. Now all the reading I am doing is saying that for VBAC you can't be induced BUT they won't let you go over 40 weeks either. I never had so much as a B/H let alone going into labor, kid didn't even drop.
Jump on a trampoline!
(PLEASE realize I am just kidding!!! Trying to lighten the mood!)
Emergency C here. All sorts of fun things happened. DD was wrapped right up in her cord, so she was in an odd position which made me spontaneously push at 6 cm for a few hours. I messed my cervix right up. The only way to get me not to push and allow for the swelling to go down was to get an epi. As soon as I got it DD had major decels. Then the C.
20 hours of med free labour at home just to end like that. Ugh. It was frustrating, but there was no other way.
I wasn't sure about the HBAC laws in British Columbia till today, but if I've only had one C then it seems I can indeed try. As we're in Canada, everything's totally covered 100% by our provincial health care. We don't pay a cent for anything. (One clinic is doing a project that offers free doulas.)
I am glad you had such wonderful support afterward...I feel I was just thrust aside. Ugh.
The midwives told me they'd wait to 41 weeks, if nothing they couldn't induce and we'd schedule a section.
Me.
Started having contractions/bloody show midnight friday night/saturday morning. Had regular contractions off and on from then on. (3 minutes apart/7 minutes apart/3/3/3/10/6/etc). 4pm my water broke. 9 pm we went to the hospital and I was 5-6cm. 3am 7-8cm. 7am 8 cm. 11am almost 8 cm (I almost cried).
At that point I had superbitch nurse, who started TRYING TO CONVINCE my doctor to gve me pitocin. I BEGGED not to have it, doctor was talking to me, nurse was arguing with the doctor about it. So, I got another hour to walk/squat/shower/etc.
1pm, pitocin. (at that point I got stadol and fell asleep). I woke up at 4ish, STILL 8cm. Dr. suggested C/s, I was so freaking over it all I said fine.
Jack was born occiput posterior (sunny side up) at 5:19pm.
I had TERRIBLE back labor, and superbitch nurse made me really stressed. Everytime she came into to monitor him, she made me lay on my back in bed until she got 15 minutes straight of contractions...which was hard 'cause the monitor kept slipping. It was HELL. And so I'd tense. And my contractions would slow. She'd leave, they'd speed up, and she'd be back in 40 minutes.
I'm in FL, and basically no one will do a primary HBAC. So I'm going to hire the homebirth midwife as a monitrice and not to go to the hospital until I'm either a) ready to push/fully dilated or b) having some sort of an emergency.
Me.
I labored at home for 30 hours. My water broke & I went straight to the birthing center. I was about 5cm but DD was WAY up high and slightly transverse. I labored at the birthing center from 10:30pm Wednesday until 11am Thursday. I only progressed to 7cm (generously, according to the hospital doc) and still remained high. Since I was GBS+ and was on the clock since my water had broke, they transferred me to the hospital. I told DH on the way that we should just go home instead!! My doula followed us to the hospital. While there, they put me on pitocin (I like how they don't ask - they just tell you what they're going to do - ha!) for 2 hours - with no change. After that, they asked me if I'd like an epi so I could have a break & increase the pitocin to see if that helps. At that point, after many tears shed & a discussion between my DH, doula & I, we opted to head straight for the c/s. It was completely against all that I had prepared for, and DH & I were scared. Once we made the decision, DD was born after 48 hours of labor. She never moved even the slightest bit towards the birth canal, was transverse & sunnyside up.
I do have a heart-shaped uterus, but my MW says that it shouldn't affect the next baby from coming into the birth canal and that I should be able to attempt for a VBAC. I soooo want this to happen, but NOT in a hospital if I can help it. I had such a bad experience in the hospital that I do not want to go there unless absolutely necessary.
As I am in Florida, from my understanding, I cannot have a VBAC in a birthing center (at least the one I was going to - it is VERY new) but that a MW can assist in a homebirth (is that an HBAC?).
Rated "L" For Life Blog
I did. I was with a midwife practice. I never went into labor and the midwives needed to release me if I went beyond 42 weeks so at 41w 6d I was induced with them. I was in active labor for 17 hours and never progressed beyond 2 cm. at which point we did the c-section. Once inside we learned that DD was sunny side up as well as a face presentation (nose coming out first instead of the crown of her head) which most MW and Drs consider impossible to deliver vaginally.
I am hoping for a HBAC with my second and am planning on waiting 2 years before TTC again.
Me too. Long story short, my water broke but I didn't go in active labor so I was essentially induced with Pitocin. After 18 hours of labor, my MW talked me into an unplanned c-section, although I'm still fuzzy on the exact reasons why.
I'm hoping for a VBAC next time, although I was told that they'd want me to get the epi in case I needed an emergency c-section. Of course, that MW also told me that a planned c-section was "glamorous".
I'm switching practices.
I am in Canada and Dr said I could try a VBAC after 1 year.
Unplanned but non-emergency c/s. DD flipped breech at 37 weeks. Then I was sent for a BPP and discovered I also had oligohydramnios. My fluid was borderline dangerously low. I was sent straight to the hospital for a c/s. At that time, I was told they would take me into the OR around 6pm. However, the original anesthesiologist decided I wasn't "emergency" enough and they pushed me back to 8am the next morning.
We're currently TTC # 2 and I'm hopeful for a VBAC. I'm thankful to have a supportive MW and optimistic, since they're sorta my MW's "specialty" and I'll be delivering at a hospital with only a 5% overall c/s rate. Hopefully this time baby and body are more cooperative. lol
I had a doula, had taken a hypnobirth class, and had planned an unmedicated birth.
I still ended up with the epidural, and with a c/s because of his position. (he had a severely bruised head after pushing for 3 hours).
We plan to VBAC next time, but knowing my family and our history of large babies, my history with GD etc, I am not as hopeful as I would like to be.
Did you do the whole hypnobirth course? It is one of the options on my table for next time (among about 5 others). Just wondering what you thought of it.
Exactly what happened with me. Still pissed about all the crap I ate when I was pregnant that probably made me have pre-eclampsia. HBAC for me!
I wasn't dead-set on going unmedicated but I intended to hold out as long as humanly possible, in hopes that, if I DID decide I wanted an epi, that I would be too far along to get it by then.
I wound up getting induced after I was misdiagnosed with low fluid. I was sent for an AFI for DFM even though it had resolved itself long before I was actually taken for the U/S (doc thought that was the reason for her decreased movement earlier, I still kick myself for agreeing to it when she was moving again). They broke my water 7 hours into my induction and the doc told me it was everywhere and it hadn't been low at all (WTF!), and I wound up getting an epi 90 minutes later. I had no problem with the contractions before that but after they broke my water it was suddenly unbearable. I had made a fair amount of progress beforehand but DD was still high and it took 15 1/2 hours from when they started the induction to get me to 6cm, 100% effaced and -1 station. At that point her HR was dropping with my contractions and I wound up getting a C/S. She just wasn't ready.
I wish so many things had gone differently. I am most likely seeing a MW next time and hiring a doula (definitely if I go with a hospital VBAC, maybe if I'm going to try to HBAC). We're also waiting at least 20 months from C/S to TTC again. I'm hopeful that, if I go into labor on my own, when my LO and I are ready, things will turn out differently.
Sarah - 12/23/2008
Alex - 9/30/2011
"I say embrace the total geek in yourself and just enjoy it. Life is too short to be cool." - Shirley Manson, Garbage
I did not get a c/s, but I did plan on an unmedicated birth at a freestanding birth center. I went to 41.5 weeks, had a stress test where they determined my fluids were low. At 9am, I was induced with Cytotec (my MW said she only recs Pit as a last resort), they broke my water. Labored for 5 hours, to 5cm. Got an epi (hello guilt trip!), labored for 1 hour to 10cm, relaxed for 1 hour, pushed for 1 hour. DD born at 5:30pm.
A simple (!) 9-5 birth.
Interesting. Both the hospital and my midwife said that waiting 2 years was best. I would love to try VBAC, but have to admit that the idea of my incision busting open scares the sh*t out of me.
Yep. I did. I labored at home for 15 hours using the hpno techniques. I was in so much pain, and by the time I got to the hospital, I was only a 5!! My train of thought was kind of tarnished on the ride there, because I was out of my element, and it really broke my 'hypnosis.' My doula and I tried to get it going again, but by that time, I was almost begging for the epi. Oh well....
Me!
After 22 hours of my water breaking and making nearly no progress on my own... DS was transverse and not moving. The C-section went amazingly well as has recovery.
I *don't* think I'll try a VBAC next time... I was terrified during the end that LO would go into distress.... (I had gotten a horrible infection from my water breaking) That was so much scarier than the thought of my birth going so opposite of what I planned.... I just can't imagine going through that again. Again I'm only 3 weeks from that day so I could change my mind....
But right now there's something comforting about the next one being a planned c-section without the worry.
Warning: Frightening-a$$ story below:
Our landlord's cousin had a C-section. Her doctors recommended she wait 2 years before the next PG (not sure if it was her individual circumstances or their general rec), but she wanted her kids close together so she got PG about a year after kid #1. 2nd C-section. Drs. then recommended she wait 4 years before the next because she hadn't fully healed from #1 and #2 made it worse, but she wanted lots of kids close together, so she got PG about a year after kid #2. At around 7 months, she felt like something was wrong and went into the hospital, but the nurses thought she was freaking out about BH contrax and basically ignored her for 6 hours. She ended up bleeding internally because the incisions had ripped open, and then the external incisions ripped, and she bled to death. They're suing the hospital for ignoring her in the waiting room, but in the meantime...
I haven't had kids yet, so I don't know what's it like to recover from a C, but I would just like to stress that people should listen to their doctors regarding recovery times, or at least ask why if they recommend a long wait...
i didn't necessarily plan for unmedicated. i just didn't plan to make any decisions until i felt the pain. i took the epi after almost 10 hrs.
i did get a c/s due to heart decels & baby being stuck in my pelvic bone.
with #1, went in to labor on my own 10 days past my due date. labored unmedicated for 14 hours. labor never advanced- never dilated past 8, water was broken by doc, etc. pitocin given=baby's heartrate skyrocketed. never descended in to the birth canal. csection at 17 hours.
with #2, was hoping for VBAC. went in to labor on my own 9 days before my due date. labored for 3 hours, but most of the same conditions applied- namely baby was not descending in to the birth canal. csection 3hr15min after labor started