Ahhh. I have a friend who has von Willebrand's disease and she was due to have a natural birth, but her DS had other ideas and was unstable lie, so had to be delivered by CS under GA.
She was very panicky about the whole birth thing, for a number of reasons, not least that her sister had had to have an emCS and she didn't want to be in that position - couldn't be allowed to be in that position - so she had many chats with her consultant obstetrician while pregnant. They did want her to have a natural birth, to try and avoid the need for blood-clotting managment, and if her DS had been head down where he should have been that is what she would have had. BUT they had everything in her notes and in place to give her the necessary treatment if a CS became essential.
As it turned out, the CS was fairly straightforward - she was given desmopressin (helps reduce the bleeding) prior to the CS, but yes, had to have the GA, albeit as light a dose as they could manage. Even so, her DS was pretty dopey for a few days - I remember visiting her in hospital and he slept the whole time; but when she came home after about a week, I think it was, he suddenly started to cry more and she was a little bewildered as to why - I believe it was that the anaesthetic had finally worn off and he was behaving as any other baby would!
Muser's SIL would have a similar condition to that which I have, factor V Leiden thrombophilia, which is the opposite problem, hence needing daily injections of anti-coagulant and compression stockings to prevent clots. This is not relevant to vWD. :)