VBAC - oh, I'm getting all confused and bothered, just dont know what to do..... can anyone help?

[waitingwaiting]

hello!
Well, I'm due to give birth in 3 weeks and went to see my consultant yesterday to discuss VBAC (1st time around giving birth was awful!)... I'm really hoping to try for a natural birth, but just dont know what I should agree to and must admit its worrying me somewhat .... the consultant wants me to go for a sweep at 40weeks and then if that doesnt work I think he said some days later something else to get me started, (cant remember what!) he said they would do it very gently because of my scar.... is all these interventions a good thing? what would you do? would you wait and see what happens naturally and then if nothing happens go for a c-section, or do you think getting helped along is a good thing??.... not even sure if they would break waters?! it didnt help as my consultant was difficult to understand!!
Also, what was your experience of the continual monitoring?
Please share your thoughts!!
Thankssss youuuu

Hi,
I was VERY firm in anting a VBAC as I hated recovering from a CS. I told my Dr I wanted to go as long as possible, to see if Baby would come himself, naturally. So I went to 10 days overdue, with no baby to show. As this is the longest they will wait, I then had a planned induction on day 11. I had a pessary, and within half an hour was having major contractions. DS2 was born normally and wonderfully, a few hours later. No sweep, no waters broken manually. Why is the consultant so keen for this intervention? Surely there is no need till the baby is defo overdue,ie, 40 weeks is NORMAL, not overdue..
Ask how many days you can go over. Agree to wait till X day. There is utterly, utterlyno reason why you cant havea normal, vaginalbirth. The risk of your CS tearing is utterly minimal. My VBAC was a wonderful, amazing experience. Go and be firm, ask for your VBAC and agree on how many days you can go over, and what steps you want taken.

I too had a VBAC which went really well. I had long chat with consultant at about your stage of pregnancy and he went through the types of induction they could and couldn't use.

Like you I worried and worried about them and in the end DD was only 4 days late and labour happened spontaneously! So it may not come to any of the induction decisions!

I had to have continual monitoring which I found a bit irritating but still allowed me to kneel, stand etc it just meant I had to stay next to the bed. It was okay really. THe most annoying thing was when they put a canula (sp?) in my hand just in case I had to have a c-section at any point - I was mid contraction with some random bloke trying to stick things into my hand and I was not happy!

Good luck - in my experience it's well worth trying to do the VBAC if you can. I found the recovery, my state of mind, how tired I felt was all much much better after a normal delivery than after the c-section. Hope it works out for you.

Hi waitingwaiting,

I had a consultant meeting on Monday about what I wanted to do. First birth was an emergency c-section after DS's head twisted and refused to descend.

I was induced with DS at 14 days overdue. This time I've said that I don't want to be induced as I found the process unpleasant the first time round. Instead I'll let nature take it's course until I'm 10 days overdue then I'll have a c-section.

I was asked if I wanted a sweep but I've also declined this.

This is such a difficult decision to make as everyone has a different view on what is and isn't acceptable to them. Best Wishes for the birth.