VBAC Lurker - ready to intro

TerraCotta210 · October 2011

Hello ladies. My name is Terra and I am currently pregnant with baby #2. I've lurked on the VBAC board for quite some time - gained a wealth of helpful knowledge and inspiring stories in the meantime - and I finally feel ready to introduce myself.

DH and I have one son, Alex, who is 4 years old. He was born in July 2007 via c-section (which btw was never a part of my "birth plan"). As much as I had hoped for a vaginal birth, I was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia (dangerously high BP, near organ failure, the works) and my doctors began trying to induce nearly 7 weeks pre-term. As they explained it to me, often when they try to induce so early you're body just resists the medications because it's not ready to give birth. This happened with me and due to my ever faster declining health, they decided to perform an emergency c-section. Had I not gotten pre-e, my OB firmly believed that I would have been able to deliver vaginally without any foreseen complications.

After speaking with my OB prior to TTC #2, he advised that he would support my decision to attempt a VBAC under the following conditions:

I do not get repeat pre-eclampsia;
They do not need to induce labor, for ANY reason; and
The baby is not over 10 lbs, which would put added stress on my uterus during labor.

In either event, sorry for the long winded introduction. I look forward to getting to know the ladies here over the next several months and hope to be able to post a VBAC success story in 2012.