Vbac support thread

[Fabulosososo]

Anyone else who's having a vbac want to share info, stats, tips, ideas, feelings about it all? Or even just complain, rant, celebrate, share news & updates? It might be nice if there's a few of us out there going through the same thing. I don't know anyone in real life who's had a vbac at all!

Obviously if you've had a vbac and fancy posting stories, tips and encouragement, that would be amazing too!

How is everyone getting on?

Welcome MyGreenSofa!

I've finally got my specialist vbac/elcs appointment through where we will talk through the options for labour . Has anyone had one of these appointments before? Are they quite neutral or do they push you down one route or the other? Also, do I have to make a decision at the appointment? I wanted to get all the information from them, have a bit of time to think and then decide a few weeks later but the appointment is not until 34 weeks which won't leave much time for a follow up especially if I decide I want elcs at 39 weeks. It's a shame they don't put a bit of info in the letter about what it is ans how to prepare really

Fabuloso I had one, and they definitely tried to steer me down the VBAC route rather than elective - but then I already knew I'd prefer to go for a VBAC if I can as I think in my situation it's less risky than a repeat section as I don't have any risk factors and my EMCS was mainly due to DS being back to back and labour not progressing after premature rupture of membranes. If I'd had different complications in my first labour they might have taken a different view with me.

I found it really informative in terms of what I would and wouldn't be allowed to have in labour, and the midwife who I met was really clued up, so it was useful. I had it at 22 weeks though, 34 seems a bit late!

Oh, and I don't think you have to decide now! I said I'd be happy to go to 41 weeks, and then would prefer a section the following week rather than induction, and I got told I didn't need to decide now, I can just decide at 41 weeks whether I want an ELCS. So don't let them put pressure on you to decide now.

Hello! Im hoping for a VBAC any day now.. Im 40+4 and induction is booked for 41+1 using cooks balloon - does anyone have experience of this? Had sweep at 40+2 and cervix only 1 cm open, posterior , and baby only 1/5 engaged. Boo! I was induced with first too so cant really imagine labour just starting on its own..

I had my appointment last week. I had been thinking of trying for vbac, after weeks of dithering. I came away thinking, nope, elcs please! The person I saw was very neutral, said it wasn't her place to persuade me one way or the other, but to inform me so I could make a decision. This is what I was told:

Average 70% success rate with vbac, but my hospital is 54%
1% chance of scar rupture. Seems high to me.
I will need constant monitoring, only one set of mobile monitoring equipment
No water birth for me
They're not keen on me going over due (big baby)
They prefer not to induce, or give epidural as both increase risk of scar rupture
If I did go overdue, I could have sweep at 41 and waters broken at 42. Not keen on either tbh!
I need to have made as much of a decision as I can by 36 weeks.
If I go into labour and 'fail to progress' they will only leave me 4 hrs before c section
I should be given the option at any time.

Welcome silverfish! I've no experience of the cooks balloon thing. I've heard of it on this forum but it sounded like quite a new thing that not many people had experience of. Fingers cross things start happening for you before that anyway!

NottaLotta they don't sound very supportive of vbac at your local hospital. They've put so many restrictions on you I'm not surprised your going for elcs. 1% scar rupture is higher than what I've read. Is that stat specific to your circumstances? Did they mention going to the birth centre? I know of people near me going for vbac at the birth centre to avoid a lot of these restrictions etc. I don't think it's hospital policy and the official recommendation is to go to the hospital so I don't know if you have to ask specifically. What did they mean about you only being allowed 4 hours if you 'fail to progress'? Are you allowed 4 hours to start dilating again? Or would you have to give birth within 4 hours?

it does sound like they make it pretty difficult to have a vbac. I don't think a 50-50 chance of success would be enough for me to want to risk it. I'm glad you've come to a decision and are happy with it. I bet elcs is very exciting as u know the exact date when u will meet your little one!!

I have my vbac appointment in a few weeks so still no decisions made here....

Different hospitals have different policys but at mine (whittington) they said they would want me on labour ward with continuous monitoring. But said if i was planning to refuse constant monitoring i might as well go to birth centre as thats really only difference. The birth centre is just downstairs and your guarenteed a pool..

fab the midwife I saw was great, really, I just drew my own conclusions from the info. And I keep hearing such horror stories of vaginal birth. Equally, ds was up at 5.15 today, and husband (having told me about ten times yesterday how tired I looked) was still in bed at 9. So I'm not filled with confidence at how I will manage post c section.

I am consultant led anyway, so no birth centre for me. It's ridiculous, as it's for a medical issue that causes me NO real problems. But also, I'm.a but paranoid that something would go wrong if I were to take a stand.

Tbh I'm still not 100% but as you say, 50/50 is a bit shit!

NottaLotta Its such a tough decision. We're being told vbac is safer for our specific circumstances (assuming no unexpected medical reasons). However, last cs was a very good experience I felt really well cared for and emcs isn't safer. I think that's what makes it such a difficult decision. Have u got a bit of time to decide still?

You're spot on Fab it's bloody difficult!! They want a decision by my 36 wk consultant appointment, will be 33 tomorrow. I think.im.going to request elcs to be booked as close to due date as poss.

Nottalotta There's so many unknowns it's a bit of an impossible decision really. You have a few weeks still to decide then. If your leaning still towards cs at 36 weeks it sounds sensible to book it. I bet it's easy enough to cancel an elcs if you change your mind. It's probably harder to schedule an elcs last min if you changed your mind from vbac to cs later. Either way you will get to meet your beautiful baby at the end I keep trying to remember that. Keep your eye on the prize!

How are you getting on silverfish? You must be cuddling your lovely little newborn by now?

Anyone else got any news?

Well I finally had my vbac appointment and it's kind of put me off. I'd been told I could go to the birth centre repeatedly and then suddenly I've been told that they don't let vbacs go to the birth centre which has completely thrown me. Also I know people who've had vbacs at the birth centre so I know that's not true. Also they made me make all my decisions on the spot having literally just been given the info about risks etc and when I questioned it they said they have no more appointments left so I can't come back and had to decide there and then. There are a lot of restrictions on vbac at the hospital and it sounds very hard to opt out of things or to ask for more time to see how things progress naturally. It's left me thinking I'll leave it as late as possible to go to the hospital until I really can't cope with the pain or I'm literally pushing the baby out. But if I end up so reluctant to go in that I stay at home really late with no medical assistance surely it would be safer to be in the birth centre at an earlier point and at least have a midwife monitoring. I'm not sure whether to ask to see someone more senior and tell them how uncomfortable I'm feeling or whether to just leave it and just try to stay home as long as possible. Has anyone else had one of these vbac specialist appointments?

I'm sorry your appointment didn't go well fab. Were they trying to convince you to go one way or the other? I think you should perhaps ask to see someone more senior. Perhaps supervisor of midwives? It's a big decision and they should be doing everything they can to accommodate you within reason to make you feel as comfortable as possible.

I have my VBAC appointment on Thurs so I'll report back then.

Hi, yes im now holding my baby. Hesitated to post this as NOT a positive vbac story. But it is what happened to me.

I tried vbac for all the right reasons- last time i laboured and dilated fine but seemed her head position ment she didnt descend. My odds of vbac were good.

This time went into labour naturally and labour was completely fine. I actually was at a toddlers birthday party and didnt notice i was in labour till we left. Slept some of the night and wasnt really painful mostly, fully dilated on arrival at hospital.

Then it was painful- i knew i was fighting it and not pushing effectively due to how it felt. Got epidural and 'purple pushing' another hour. She was still only 1/5 engaged.

Went in for trial of instruments in theatre ( skipped this step last time and always wondered if i could have avoided the section) but doctors decided they couldnt even try instruments as too high. Thank god we didnt try!

So on to c section. Last time i bled badly so was scary for me and husband. This time they found so much scar tissue and adhesions they tried to disect through but couldnt get to lower half of uterus, so had to make incision higher on uterus. Took 45 mins to get this far.

Then once they said 'babys coming out' it was suddenly obvious something was wrong.. They started thrashing around behind the drapes, calling for an emergency and all the alarms went off..

Usually baby delivered head first in section but due to high incision pulled out legs first. Head was stuck in pelvis and midwife was pushing her back up inside me. Due to traumatic delivery She didnt breathe for 4 mins and had to be resussitated, heart rate v slow and all very scary indeed. Room filled with people once alarms went off and we had no idea what was happeneing.

She is all fine and all tests after were normal and spent 24 hours in NICU. My recovery was definitly rougher than last time, and i actually lost even more blood than last time and had 3 transfusions.

So.... Although all drs and miwifes were great and i knew all risks apparently for me vbac wasnt gonna work . I have an odd pelvis and my babys dont descend! If i ever fancied another one i have to have senior consultant performing planned section- but still dont know if id dare.

Good luck everyone whatever you decide to do! Dont be put off..

MyGreenSofa Luckily I'd researched and made my decision to go for vbac before the appointment as the explanation of the risks was pitiful. She just said there's a 1/200 chance of scar splitting but didn't explain how dangerous that actually is and she said on the other hand cs would have 'same risks as last time'. The risks discussion literally lasted 1-2 mins and then I had to make my decision. She seemed noticeably relieved when I said we would go for vbac so I suspect we would have felt a bit of pressure if we had said we wanted cs but I don't know. After that she wrote me a birth plan in which everything was dictated to me as a necessity and nothing seemed optional. I'm going to enjoy my new year and then I will have to decide whether to push to see someone more senior or whether to handle it all on the day (I know they need my consent for any medical care so in theory I can refuse on the day). Please let us know how you get on on Thursday. It would be really helpful to know if it's the same everywhere or maybe just the particular person I saw or just my local NHS trust even. Good luck on thurs!

silverfish thanks so much for coming back to let us know how you got on! Wow that's one hell of a story! I'm trying to go into this whole thing being very realistic abad understanding all the different outcomes so all stories both positive and negative are really helpful. Your experience sounds really scary. I hope you are feeling okay and recovering from what must have been a bit of a shock . I'm glad your baby was okay and I hope you are recovering well from the surgery. And a Huge Congratulations on the birth of your gorgeous little one!!!

Congratulations on the birth of your DD silverfish. So sorry to hear about the traumatic experience you both had! I suppose there was no way of knowing that would happen, or do you feel like things could have been managed differently?

So I had my VBAC appointment. I will see a consultant at 37 weeks to actually make the plan and see if any other factors have popped up but at the mo I'm meant to be a fairly good candidate as I got to about 7cm last time. This appointment was with a midwife and she basically just went through their VBAC procedure and the pros & cons of VBAC and ELCS. They say they'll want me to come in quite early once labour starts and once in established labour at 4cm they'll give me 6 hours to reach 10cm and then allow 2 hours from reaching 10cm to getting baby out and if things start to look like they're not progressing they will be quite quick to move to c-section. I was happy with all of this. The hospital is pro VBAC so I feel they do try and gloss over the risks a bit...

I wasn't sure if this thread was still running.

Sorry to hear of your traumatic time silverfish, hope all is well now.

So far I have had a specialist vbac appointment, spoken to three consultants, two other mw. All have said different things.

I go back to hospital tomorrow for high bp monitoring, and will see another Dr then. My plan is this: book in for elcs at term or term plus 4 max (dd is a Thursday, so plus 4 would be Monday) if I go into labour naturally I will try for vbac.
If things are not progressing I will request c section.

I'm keen to avoid ventouse /forceps but realise things are often too far along by then to refuse.

I have literally no.idea about pain relief. May start a thread.....

I'm due in Feb and I'm still undecided

Had another VBAC appt yesterday, and have come up with a vague 'plan' although I might still change my mind when I see the consultant again in 3 weeks.

At the moment I am swaying towards VBAC, but only if I go into labour naturally and at no point do I want syntocin.

I feel so confused though, my hospital doesn't have a great VBAC rate and also looking at all the indicators for a successful VBAC I don't seem to do to well!

Hi everyone. Sorry I've not been on the thread for a while. We've had a stressful couple of weeks as I was misdiagnosed with a pregnancy related condition and then it took a week (with me stressing about it) to do the proper tests which confirmed there was absolutely nothing wrong at all. So it's a relief but I feel a bit worn out!

In terms of vbac I managed to talk to a doctor this week who said I would get the same care in labour as a normal birth except that I would be continuously monitored. I found this quite reassuring as was concerned they might be a bit too eager to pounce even if mother baby are doing well.

MyGreenSofa I'm glad your vbac appointment went well. Sounds like they explained things a lot better to you than mine did. Let us know how your next appointment goes! I'm finding the info other people have got at these appointments really useful as I hadn't thought to ask some of the questions you asked!

Letsgetready welcome! You sound similar to a lot of us in terms of making the final decision. I should really have called this thread the 'vbac/elcs/not sure what to do after cs' thread! It's a really tough decision as there are so many unknowns. I keep having to remind myself that the outcome (baby in my arms) is the same either way so in that sense it's not the end of the world whichever way it goes (even though it does feel like a huge deal to me!). Where have you seen the stats on your hospital's csection rate? Is it on the which website? My consultant told me I have a 70-75% chance of success whereas the hospital rate is only 50% so I'm a bit confused! I wonder where Which get their stats...

Nottalotta I'm glad you have a plan! Do you feel better about it with having the plan now? I've see your other threads. Due to issues during my first birth I tried lots of different types of pain relief and was continuously monitored at the end so ill post some comments on your threads

Thank you fab as you can see I am scrabbling for info. I don't know yet if I feel better. I think I will after today when I get a date booked so there's an end in sight. I'm very much struggling daily now with being so bloody incapacitated.

Re the stats. Hmm I don't know either. It's maybe a national average? I keep being told 70% but my hospital is 54% which I found concerning, but I actually think it's because they take a better safe than sorry approach and switch to c section quickly if things aren't going well, which I'm OK with.