- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
VBAC
Yoga sufficient?
in VBAC
I'm hoping for a VBAC this time around, and am working with a very supportive OB. Last time, we were working with midwives and had planned a natural-as-possible waterbirth. Obviously it didn't go as planned; I just ended up with one of those typical "didn't work out" c-section stories: I was induced at 42 weeks, labored 48 hours, epi at around 6 cm dilated, baby was sunny side up making it more difficult, pushed for three hours or so, and then baby's heartrate dropped and substantial meconium showed -- off for the c-section we went.
Anyway, in advance of the birth, we took a couple of bradley classes, and I was never really into it. I also listened to some hypnobirthing CDs, but wasn't into that either (to be fair, I never "studied" it, really, so maybe I just didn't give it a decent shot). This time around, I'm thinking maybe just taking lots of prenatal yoga, and applying the breathing during labor might be the ticket. I like yoga quite a lot. Any thoughts? Does this seem like enough prep for the labor? I will say that with my son, I don't think I did a good job handling the contractions. I didn't breath through them effectively, and I know I tensed up quite a lot. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that my labor didn't get "regular" -- I had lots of contractions on top of one another followed by long pauses (something that is apparently common with sunny side up babies), and it confused me. Hopefully that won't happen again, but it very well might.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Yoga sufficient?
Have you thought about hiring a doula? I think you might find them really helpful because they can guide you through breathing and other techniques during labor. I know that when I was in hard labor, it was really hard to think and remember things, and my doula was really helpful--way more helpful than the class I took.
I don't have a lot of experience with prenatal yoga so I really can't say whether it will help you during labor or not.
I loved prenatal yoga during my first pregnancy, and I really did end up using the skills during his labor. The breathing, relaxing and vocalizing all really came in handy, and I do think they helped me get through that labor med-free (well, until the c-section, har har). I meant to take some more classes during my second pregnancy, but never got around to it.
Your contractions may have also been harder since you were induced, too. Good luck!
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
I did HypnoBabies before my first labor, which was also planned to be natural as possible. I won't say it didn't help, but? 3 days of back labor sucks any way you slice it. I didn't do anything in prep for my VBAC and it went fine. Not having a sunny side up baby was the most important factor in dealing with my second labor. Sure, contractions got intense, but they didn't hold a candle to the ones I had with Bean. As PP said, getting induced may have made them even worse (though in my experience, the ctx I had before and after pitocin augmentation felt no different at all? they were already excruciating before).
That said, if you were tensing up and not breathing through them well, something like yoga, which will help you focus on breathing, would probably be quite beneficial. The HypnoBabies did help me with that, and even though I didn't go through the program again, I still knew the breathing techniques and used them in my second labor.