When your first birth was a c-section....

[BasinHaircut]

If you have a vbac, do you labour as if it's your first (in the sense that first labours are longer and subsequent are quicker) or do they follow the second birth pattern?

I know it's not a hard and fast rule and a lot of people may never know how long thier first labour would have been if it was, for example, an ELCS but I was just wondering in general really....

I had a EMCS first time and am now pg again. Haven't finally decided what to do about birth this time but my consultant did mention that the VBAC success rate is higher the more dilated you were the first time ( if that makes sense?). I only made it to 4cm so my chances of a successful VBAC are lower than someone who got to 7cm.

He also mentioned that if I did try a VBAC he would recommend continuous monitoring.

I'm sure someone who knows more will come along soon!

Hi,

I can only speak for myself.

1st baby: 15 hours labour, 2 hours of pushing, baby occiput posterior (sunny side up), wouldn't descend even a bit after 2 hours of pushing, so was taken by C-section.

2nd baby 2.5 years later. Baby correct position, labour 3 hours so quite short, but needed to push for 45 minutes to get her out.

So in my experience: labour was shorter, but the whole pushing thing and "paving the road" was basically like a first birth.

I asked about this and it depends if you were in labour or not before your first section. I had an emcs due to placenta praevia so never went into labour or had a single contraction. That makes VBAC less likely to succeed than women that experienced labour before their CS. For my body I've been told it'll be very much a first birth

I had EMCS for ds1 due to failure to progress (got to 7cm then stopped). Ds2 was vbac. Waters broke at 4.30pm. 6pm I was 0 cm dilated. DS2 born at 9.44 and would have been earlier if I'd have been a better pusher . I have no idea if this helps to answer your question though!

Thanks all.

My first was an EMCS. I was in labour, water broke at 5pm (before labour started) and then had some contractions but not big ones I believe, but I've nothing to compare it to!

I have no idea how dialated I got as I was diagnosed breech so I was just prepped for c-section but had to wait 6 hours as I'd just eaten. I wasn't examined internally.

I don't know why I'm worrying about this now, I'm not even pregnant yet!