VBAC- questions about amount of monitoring, birth pools, inductions, etc

[LittleRascal]

I am currently 38 weeks. Planning a VBAC after an emcs due to dd was in feotal distress 15 months ago.
I have had practically no information from my hospital so have been reading through the threads and see some people who have undergone VBACs were allowed to have a waterbirth, others were heavily monitored and flat on their backs, others induced,others not allowed to be induced,etc.
I would really like a VBAC and dont want to go the intervention route and would love to have a water birth.
Any suggestions about how to go about this.

Things to consider

• you can refuse continuous monitoring if you wish - regular doppler checks, pulse checks and 1 to 1 care from a MW are at least as likely to identify symptoms of rupture , which is main increased risk in a VBAC labour compared to a non VBAC labour.

-You cannot force the hospital to let you use the pool - you can refuse anything you like but can't make them 'provide' a service/facility if they are not willing, lots of places have a policy which states no pool for VBAC.

-If you choose a homebirth you will get one to one care from a MW, no continuous monitoring and if you want to use a pool, well it's your house

Induction increased the risk of uterine rupture and most places will not induce a VBAC at all (quite rightly too IMHO) Personally I would choose a repeat CS if there was an urgent reason to get the baby out, rather than be induced.

Some MLU's will be more flexible than others. Remember, the policies are for their staff, not you, so don't feel that you must do anything you are unhappy with. A starting point can be to change to MW only care, as no need to see a consultant if you have no other issues/medical problems during this pregnancy.

The VBAC handbook is a good, small, non scary book for information, and the VBAC/HBAC yahoo group is fab too.

Sure Lulu will have some words of wisdom to add