Tell me your positive VBAC stories!

[4pudding]

I'm 38 weeks.

Dd1 born by CS as she was breech, but I went into labour spontaneously and got to 8/9 cm with just gas and air, so have really high chance of a successful VBAC.

Would love to hear about people's positive stories so I can approach it with the right mindset!

My first was ELCS for breech. VBAC almost didn't happen due to pre-eclampsia but got my way with the help of syntocinon and although it hurt like fuck and I ended up with a tear it was the best fun I've ever had and I'd do it again tomorrow! Being able to sit up and hold DD right away and being able to walk to the shower a couple of hours later was fab, and it was incredible to be up and about and moving comfortable without feeling like my insides were falling out. Good luck :)

Hi. DS1 born by emcs due to 'failure to progress' beyond 7cms and he was 9lbs 1oz. I desperately nagged and worried and hassled the consultant with DS2 and he was happy for me to go for VBAC.

Waters broke at 4.30pm, into hospital for about 5.30, monitored and told at 6pm that I was nowhere near giving birth as not in any way dilated. Felt very . By 7pm I was well on the way and DS2 was born at 9.22pm that same evening. He would have been a good hour earlier if I'd been any good at pushing!! Just gas and air.

It is possible, and for me it was the best mental healing experience after being really messed up in the head about DS1 being a section. I was also very lucky that the midwife who was with me for the first hour or so was the one from my doctor's surgery who kept on saying 'you're here, you're doing it, you can do it' and when (in transition I can see now) I wailed ' I can't do it, can I have an epidural' she very sternly told me off since I'd been bending her ear for the last 6 months about the vbac and not going down the intervention route. She roundly (and quite rightly!) teased me about it during post natal visits too!

Best of luck, think positive, don't worry about being monitored, and put up with the monitor on your belly constantly as it reassures the midwives into not panicking about you. And I look forward to seeing your birth announcement on here in a week or two!

Will call back later for longer version. Here's a short version; first baby, 42 hr labour, fully dilated, baby well stuck. EMCS. Things went wrong, me in HDU, baby in SCBU. Second baby, big baby born in under 4hrs at home (didn't intend HBAC, but was fully dilated by the time my IM arrived and she said if we set off on the 45min journey to the hospital I would most likely have him on the side of the road.) Labour very easy and not at all painful, just a bit uncomfortable. 3a tear due to varicose vein popping and off into hospital for that to be stitched, back home by evening. Fabulous recovery in my own bed, back up and about so much faster than with CS. Felt absolutely elated for weeks!

Lovely, thank you!

Keep 'em coming :)

First baby, born by emcs at 34 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. I was never in labour so had no idea how I would get on with a VBAC, but was desperate to not have another cs.

Second baby, pre-eclampsia started to come back again from about 36 weeks and my consultant booked me for a cs at 40+3. I went for my pre-op and resigned myself to another cs. Miraculously, I went into labour spontaneously at 39+6.

I was asked to go into hopsital pretty much straight away (I was about 1cm dilated when I got there but they wanted me to stay because I was so high risk). Because of the PET and VBAC, I was on the CLU, was monitored continuously and had a cannula in. I had a wireless monitor which made an enormous difference to me, as I could walk easily up and down the room and go to the toilet etc. Blood pressure taken loads but thankfully it didn't go up much.

After about 12hrs I was only 3cm dilated and contractions not the magic "3 in 10", so the consultant wanted to break my waters, which made an immediate difference. I was very aware of the cascade of intervention so had been holding off on the pain relief (was very fortunate that I never found the pain unmanagable), but had to ask for gas and air quite soon afterwards. Stayed on my feet the whole time hanging onto dh when the cx got worse. Was just starting to think that I really coudln't do it any more and would need to ask for more pain relief when I realised I was pushing (in hindsight that was obviously transition!). Dd was born very fast in about 3 pushes 3.5hr after my waters were broken.

I had a second degree tear as her hand was up by her head but the recovery was a million times better than cs and it was amazing being able to get up the night she was born to change her nappy and feed her (even more amazing having her with me and not in SCBU!). Also brilliant getting home and being able to pick up ds and go out for walks etc.

Sorry have wittered on for ages but it really was brilliant and I felt so proud of myself (probably somewhat unjustifiably!) afterwards. Lots of luck with yours.

I had a VBAC 4 weeks ago yesterday! Was the most wonderful, positive, empowering experience.

First baby born by crash GA section. Recovery took months, both mentally and physically.

Like you I got to 7-8cms on just gas and air so thought I had a good shot at a VBAC. As it turned out I laboured in the pool (had to get out for actual birth) again with just gas and air, and pushed her out in just 20 minutes.

Am not gonna lie to you it hurt like a fucker, and I think I had in the back of my mind that I actually couldn't do it and had no self confidence, so had a particularly harsh transition (begged LOUDLY for another section!) but do you know what..... I bloody did do it, and am still coasting on a high.

It has healed some very painful wounds, and actually I still feel quite emotional about it, am welling up now jsut thinking about it.

All the very best with it. Childbirth is an unpredictable beast, but all things being well there's no reason for it not to be a positive experience for you. :o

I had a VBAC 14 months ago - also an amazing experience - also got to fully dilated last time got to hopstial about 8.30am and had baby 17.30 pm - had a quite long 2nd stage - the monitoring was a bit of PITA - but once it was really getting going didn't really notice

My first DD was OP, v painful 24-ish hour labour, was almost completely dilated and then stopped, 2 hours on syntocinon (sp?) drip didn't make any difference, went for emcs, recovery seemed to take forever...

This time last year I was almost a week overdue but still determined to go for a VBAC, my midwife was SO supportive, never once mentioned booking me in for another section, consultant was supportive, had two sweeps at 40ish & 41ish weeks, went in for monitoring at 42 weeks (still no pressure for section). Was 3cm dilated and agreed to have waters broken to try and get things moving, waited all day but no one available as labour ward v busy.

Was just about to be moved to ante-natal ward for night after DH had gone home for real food and sleep when waters went of their own accord, pretty much went straight into full on labour, 5 hours later DD2 born!!!! Midwife in hospital amazing at encouraging me on, needed a bit of help in the end with forceps in theatre... but was holding her straight after and wide awake & feeding her in recovery. And the recovery from the episiotomy was a piece of cake compared to emcs. Was home the next day.

Even going 2 weeks overdue (nightmare) and needing forceps (my biggest fear!) I am SO glad I went for the VBAC. Best of luck! [busmile]

Oh just wanted to say as well, I did not have continuous monitoring for my VABC. I had intermittant monitoring with a doppler every 15 mins. Continuous monitoring is not shown to improve outcomes, not even in VBAC, if your uterus is about to rupture there are other ways for the midwives to identify it, so you shouldn't need to be on a CTG the whole time.

Although I didn't have a waterbirth, the reason I had to get out of the pool at the end was nothing to do with being a VBAC, so a waterbirth should not be out of the question either. I even had a cannula in and was still allowed to use the pool.

I had pre-eclampsia with dd1 3 yrs ago, was induced and after 48 hours of being in pain and "labour" I got to about 2cm if at all. Dd in distress ending with an emcs. I was pretty devastated tbh, although I can't put my finger on why as I gave birth to a spectacular little monkey.

Roll forward a few years and a different hospital - we had moved by then - was pg with ds. All the time I was encouraged to have a vbac even though my midwife did say that she wasn't sure if I was one of those people who would ever "progress" in labour as apparently some women just can't. I did at that point think perhaps I just book an elcs but being Aug and hot I didn't want to be in the hospital for any amount of time if I could help it and the facilities for patients weren't nearly as good (i.e hospital 1 had patient line with tv/internet, hospital 2 had a shared room down the corridor with a black and white tv) although tbf the facilities such as bathrooms etc were perfectly good. Anyway I didn't want to be away from dd for too long either. I spontaneously went into labour a week early, went to hospital at 9pm and ds born at 3am. Infact the midwife was pretty convinced he would be there much earlier but I don't labour well on a bed apparently I am much better when moving around [bugrin]. I was 6cm when I went it and ds was born 6 hours before my appointment to see the consultant to book in a elcs after my due date as they wouldn't induce me. And if it helps I did one push and out he popped!

It was the most liberating thing in the world, the pain immediately stopped, I did have a tear (2nd degree) but small and frankly was NOTHING in comparison to the cs scar and problems I had. It did hurt like fuck though and I did ask for an epidural but it didn't work. If you get the op to do it, do it, it will really make you feel good and I think a vbac is worthy of a medal!

Ds1 was emcs, labour started spontaneously at 8.30am, admitted around 2pm and around 4cm dilated but struggled to cope with pain. Quickly progressed through to pain relief options to epidural and then failure to progress/distressed baby resulted in c/s by around 9pm.

Turned out he was op and very very stuck (dh remembers drs having to call for 'a stronger doctor' to wrestle ds1 out of me!) I felt enormously disappointed at not having natural birth and resolved to vbac next time.

Ds2 - my first braxton hicks, I thought I was in labour several times and fooled mw on labour ward with my 'labouring'. Watched an entire grand prix in labour ward before braxton hicks eased and they booted me out!

Went back in that night around midnight and because I was assessed as 'higher risk' (risk of scar rupture eg) I had my own mw the whole time. She showed me how to use gas and air and it was wonderful! First stage was fine, distinctly remember transition and 'hearing myself' saying that I definitely couldn't do it - and realising this meant I'd got further than last time.

However, I really struggled with pushing and after a long long time with no progress, consultant called who advised me to have epidural so they could attempt forceps in theatre with option of cs if forceps didn't work. Was enormously disappointed (again!)

While anaesthetist sent for, I got down from bed, on all fours and started to push. Baby started to move, I got back on bed and he shot out like a rabbit out of a hole.

I tore, 3rd degree, and I have had some incontinence/urgency issues but I believe that to some extent due to nerve damage during nigh on 4 hour stage 2 (ie not all related to 3rd degree tear). Ds born 9am and dh, ds2 and I mainly slept until 3pm when I was discharged! What a lovely feeling! Also helped me get over sense of disappointment that ds1 was cs and I have absolutely no regrets vis tear.

Go for it - but talk to mw about pushing if, like me, it feels impossible. I think ds2 was stuck and it took me moving to shift him. Because of risk of cs scar rupture I was more or less continously monitored which wasn't a problem during stage 1 but I think i was on my back, virtually immobile during stage 2. However, this was nearly 8 years ago now and I gather from some of posts above that continuous monitoring might not be standard practice now?

Good luck.

Ds1 back to back. 50 hrs and failure to progress at 4cm and so emcs. Nervously went for vbac 2 years later with ds2. Got to 8cm in waiting room in about 4 hours. He was 7 hours in total and although I would have rather not have labourered drugless infront of loads of folk, the high I felt after was amazing. Ds3 born last year in 4 hours- lovely waterbirth and home 4 hours later to put ds1 and ds2 to bed. Big vbac fan- very empowering!

I love you all, thank you Xx