My successful VBAC birth story !
I apologize in advance for the length of this birth story, but since I so desperately searched for successful VBAC stories throughout my pregnancy (and loved to read the very few of them I found posted here) I thought I'd share my experience in details.
Jackson Clark was born on August 11, 2008, at 12:27pm one day before his due date, 19 months after my previous c-section, weighing in at 7lbs 4oz and 20" long.
As those of you familiar with or planning VBACs probably already know, there isn't much leniency as far as labor and delivery goes. Any little thing that goes wrong, or that even just doesn't look perfect at any point in time before and during delivery, is often enough for many doctors to warrant a repeat c-section. Well, at least it was the case for my doctors anyway. I never got any internals prior to going into labor (they didn't want to "stress" my uterus) so at my 39 week appointment, I still had no idea if any progress had been made...which of course, added to my anxiety. I knew I desperately wanted the experience of delivering a baby vaginally, but at the same time, I was terrified. What if something went terribly wrong? What if I ended up laboring for hours only to end with a c-section? What if my decision ended up causing the baby irreversible damage? A lot of times, I felt guilty that I was being "selfish" to potentially risk so much just so that I could have the experience I wanted.
Anyway. Back to my birth story (hope you guys haven't fallen asleep yet 
So I had been told that in order to increase my chances of a successful VBAC, I not only had to go into labor on my own but it had to be before or on my due date, since inducing labor would increase my risks of uterine rupture (mind you, they still do induce labor with VBACs, and most of the time it works like a charm, but they rather not resort to it if they don't have to). So you can only imagine how thrilled I was when the evening of August 10th (Sunday), 2 days before my due date, I started having regular, and increasingly painful contractions.
I had never been in labor with my first born (they had to "get him out" at 32 weeks because of repeated heart decels), so I had no idea what real contractions felt like or how quickly my body would progress or even just deal with the pain. I had felt like complete crap all day that Sunday, kind of crampy, nauseous, tired, just really uncomfortable, and once evening came around, the contractions became timeable. I put DS#1 to bed and DH and I tried to watch a movie, to try and get my mind off of everything I was feeling. At around 10-11pm, DH fell asleep but I couldn't. The contractions were 8-10 minutes apart and I couldn't stay in bed during them as they were getting kind of painful. Around 2 am, they became closer together, but completely irregular, some 6 min. apart, then 8 min, then 7, then 9, then 4...etc. but the pain was getting so intense that I called the hospital just to see what they would say. I was told to wait until they were 5 min apart consistently for an hour and then call back. About 1 hours later, they started coming in every 3-4 minutes, so I waited about 45 minutes (couldn't wait the full hour!) and called again. Finally, the dr. on call told me come over. We left the house at around 4:45am and I was put in a triage room at around 5:15(thankfully, my mom and dad had arrived that Sunday evening to spend a few days - they live about 3 hrs away - my mom kept saying that she could "feel" the time was coming soon - oh, mother's intuition .
At 5:30 am, the dr. on call checked me and I was 3 cm dilated,75% effaced, so they officially admitted me and gave me my (beautiful) room. From the on, it went really quickly. They did a quick ultrasound to check on baby position (forgot to mention, our son had been breech since week 28 and I had a successful external cephalic version done at 38 weeks) and baby's head was still down (yay!). In a matter of an hour I went from 3 to 5 cm, asked for an epidural (loved it!) which allowed me to rest, almost sleep, for a few hours, and when they checked my again around 10 am, I was at 7 cm, fully effaced. About an hour later, I started to feel pressure in my butt (like I had to go poo) so the dr. checked me again and I was at 8 1/2 cm. Since my water still hadn't broken, they decided to break it, and at noon, I was finally at 10 cm. The Dr. came in and told me to do a "trial" push, just to see what kind of "pusher" I was (at that point I could feel the contractions - the epi was lowered a good good bit) and next thing I know, I heard her start calling nurses, and other residents to come witness a VBAC. So much for privacy (but at that point I couldn't have cared less, I was so excited that I was about to deliver my baby!
Every time I pushed, I kept hearing the dr. and nurses tell me how incredible of a pusher I was - but I didn't really listen because all I kept thinking was 1) yeah right, I've seen it on the baby story, they say that to everyone and 2) I kept focusing on what my nurse had been telling me all along, how it takes on average 2-4 hrs to push a first baby. SO there I was, with every contraction, eyes closed, extremely focused on pushing as good as I could, while keeping my jaw and mouth completely relaxed (which I had read lowers the risks of tearing - so I was really into it and all of a sudden, after about 9 pushes, I hear the nurse say "look at your baby!" So I look up, kind of expecting to see the head crowning, but no, there he was, fully out ! It was the best feeling in the world! We had kept the gender a surprise, but funny enough, I didn't even care what it was at that point ! All of a sudden I heard DH say, it's a boy! and they immediately put him on my chest, and after a few seconds, he started to cry. DH cut the cord and a few minutes later I delivered the placenta. Oh and did I mention I didn't tear? I only ended up with one little inside stitch to fix a little "scratch" as my dr. put it. Which of course, is a detail but was great nonetheless.
So that's it in a nutshell (huh...big nutshell
Overall, it was a wonderful wonderful experience. I realize I got very lucky overall with how everything flowed, but I still hope this motivates whoever is thinking about going for a VBAC. It CAN be done, and everything CAN go right, no matter how scary it is to sign that VBAC release form detailing all the risks !
That being said, I still think that in the end all that really matters is that you give birth to a healthy baby, no matter how she/he comes out, but DS#1's birth was so traumatic for us on many levels, and of course so completely unlike everything that I had ever expected, that for me trying for a VBAC, and getting to experience the little things like having my baby on my belly just after he was born, for DH to cut the cord, and especially in my case, to leave the hospital with my baby (which had nothing to do with a VBAC but DS#1 was in the NICU for 3 weeks) was really important.
So good luck to all of you getting ready to deliver, VBAC or not, and wishing all of you healthy and happy babies
Re: My successful VBAC birth story !
Congrats!!! I'm trying for a VBAC too but of the 2 OBs I've seen so far, none say that I'm a "good candidate" because I got to 10cm last time, pushed for an hour, had forceps used and my baby did not want to come out!!
I'm glad this was a better experience for you
DS #1: May 25, 2007
DS #2: Jan 7, 2009
DD #3 due May 17, 2014!!! Low lying placenta and DD measuring 1 week ahead at big u/s
i am so happy for your success! my DREAM is to have a VBAC for number 2 even though they said i have a less than 10% of having success.
congrats!
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
My IF blog
Good luck! I hope to VBAC myself in about 2 years (my induction was also for fetal distress, along with a very slow induction). Based on everything I've read, you should definitely look into hiring a doula to help you and DH in L&D, and if your doctor isn't supportive, I would look into another provider. Midwives usually have much more VBAC success.
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
thanks for posting, if all goes well i will be going for a VBAC as well, my dr agreed to give it a go, its been 10 years. Its good to hear from the VBACers!!