Going into labour this time after previous planned c section? What happens?

[BigmommaD]

With my first one I had an elected c section due to her size, all went fine and I recovered well.

I've been told this time I can have a VB and I was wondering if my labour will be shorter/ less painful than if I'd gone into labour naturally the first time? I've never experienced labour contractions so feel like a first time mum!

I hope that makes sense.

Any feedback on VBAC would be gratefully received. Cheers!

i had vbac1 in similar circs.

my waters went at 6am, contractions started straight away at 5 mins apart, went to hospital at 4mins apart. after 5 hours they sent me home (still at 4 mins). i threw up all over the house and demanded to go back to hospital. i walked the hospital until about 7pm, still contracting. i asked if i could have pain relief, they told me i wasn't in established labour. i asked for something to let me sleep then, as i was knackered. they eventually gave me an internal prior to the drugs to knock me out, discovered i was 8cms, so wouldn't knock me out and gave me pain relief instead. that knocked the contractions on the head, so they hooked me up to syntocin (or whatever it is) to try and gear up a bit... baby was back to back and not shifting. attempted internal rotation, more and more upping of drugs, eventually ds1 born vbac at 6am, 24 hours after we'd started, 10 minutes before they were going to wheel me to theatre.

i think generally, you go into labour, and have a baby about 6 hours later but it did make me appreciate the cs a bit more...

i won't tell you about vbac2

Oh my goodness Madwoman, I won't ask about the internal rotation bit. At least your children were delivered safely I hope. Thanks for the feedback.

Did you go past your due date?

Any other feedback bad or good appreciated

both vbacs i went into labour bang on 40 weeks. (and both started exactly the same way, with waters breaking at 6am and contractions starting thereafter )

internal rotation was just altogether too james herriot for my liking. and it hurt. and it didn't work.

Yep, - it is a lot like doing it for the first time. It is likely to be longer as everything has to learn what to do and stretch for the first time.

In addition, you might feel a bit of pain in your scar which should not be a problem at all but can make you anxious which signals danger to your body, producing the 'wrong' chemicals to labour efficiently, so the best thing you can do really is read up on it and going into labour relaxed and confident.

You also have an added disadvantage that they will be disturbing monitoring you which interferes with the natural process. There are less evasive ways of doing this and many vbacs have homebirths precisely to avoid this. Medical practises such as continuous monitoring and insisting you give birth on the bed aren't conducive to a good outcome, nor is timing the various stages. However, vbacs can have excellent outcomes for the mother and baby and I would strongly recommend that you did if if you feel you can.

Hypnobirthing is excellent btw.

Good luck

but that's sort of by the by and just a personal foible lol.

agree that relaxed and confident is the way to go

hope you labour gently bang on time

Thanks for the pointers/advice Chickenwoman and Madwoman, I didn't think about my scar.

I'm doing an active birth course in a few weeks so I'm hoping I'll last till my due date.