I had an awesome midwife that I loved until I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy. I had to be transferred to OB care and then developed pregnancy induced hypertension, both contributed to my planned c-section. I know she does VBACs and contacted her initially this time but decided since I was likely high risk to stay with the OB. But I just passed my 3 hour GTT and my blood pressure is awesome so far. My OB is anti-VBAC and said he will only do it in very rare situations. He basically blamed the hospital for it and said that it's because they don't staff enough anesthesiologists and that if I should need the OR one might not be available right away. At the time since I thought OB care was my only option I just went with it. But now I'd really like to try a VBAC and the natural birth I wanted last time.
I haven't done any research on VBACs yet and
while I know the midwife will say it's entirely fine I'd like to read
and decide for myself too (though I'm already biased for them). The birth center is 1/2 mile from the
hospital but she is not on contract with the hospital and if I needed to
be transferred could only stay on as a doula and not part of the
decision making team. Would your opinion on VBAC change if you're not
actually IN the hospital? And what are some good articles I can read about VBAC?
Re: VBAC at birth center
I'd talk to your birth center. Understand their procedures for VBACs and transfer in an emergency. Since my VBAC was with a midwife, in an emergency, I would have been transitioned to the oncall OB. Honestly, that didn't bother me at all.
DH wouldn't have survived the stress of not being in a hospital, so it wasn't an option for me.
Is there a third option for you to find a new OB/midwife who will support a VBAC in a hospital?
What's the birth center's VBAC rate and experience? Does the MW have transfer rate stats to give you?
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
I had a VBAC out of hospital (a home birth in my case). I think it's OK as long as you are otherwise low-risk, you are near a hospital, and you have a qualified labor attendant who has experience with VBAC. There is not much research about VBAC outside of hospitals, but there are a few studies you can look at:
https://www.washingtonmidwives.org/documents/conferenceslides/acceptable-risk-VBAC-birth-centers-germany.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15516382
https://annfammed.org/content/10/6/530.full
If you are looking for good articles on VBAC in general, check out our blog, vbacbumpies.blogspot.com