To vbac or not to vbac?

[sleepykt]

Hello! Seeking experiences of those of you that did or did not go for a vbac attempt in your second birth?

I had my first child in August 23 via elective c section after he was expected to be a very large baby and it was a nice experience with a smooth recovery. Due second baby in July 26 and struggling with the vbac attempt decision.

Im worried about being unable to take care of my toddler if I go for a c section but also worried about logistics of planning someone to be around to care for him while I give birth if I went for a vbac.

What did you do? How did it go?

I decided that I didn’t want to potentially have a long tiring labour and then a c section anyway if it didn’t go to plan. My second c section was amazing, really straightforward. How long can DH take off? I found after the first couple weeks pain was fine but obviously couldn’t lift my toddler for a lot longer than that.

I did - smaller gap than you, only 16 months, but my scar tissue ruptured, I hemmorrhaged and nearly died. No underlying health problems, I'm healthy. Can't have any more kids now (not that I wanted them, fine with 2). I am saying this because you asked (!) but also because a lot of the midwives, certainly in our area, push towards natural delivery. And of course I wanted the magical 'home by 5 with a pizza for cuddles with newborn and toddler' experience. The risks of complications like rupture are low, but they do happen and if you are one of the people they happen to, really really bad.

I had an attempted vbac with my 5th after an elective c-section with my 4th. It ended in emergency c section at 5cm dilated but I preferred the part labour and emergency section to the elective c-section.

I didn’t have a choice.. I actually really didn’t know what to do and I never made a concrete decision over it because both had pros and cons that evened them out I feel. Fate decided, I went in to labour 5 weeks early, baby came, vbac done. And I was incredibly thankful I wasn’t recovering from a c-section with baby and child to look after. For me, I think if the reasons for the first c-section were to do with you then I’d be inclined to have further c-sections. But if the reason was to do with the baby, and that reason doesn’t apply to the baby you’re pregnant with now, I’d be inclined to go vbac. But it’s so hard, I could never decide and for me it worked out so well the decision just being taken out of my hands. Trust your gut and what you want. When I decided on my first c-section (baby was breach) I took myself out for lunch alone and sat and quietened all the noise from my mind and just went with what my gut told me.

Team ELCS for no 2 after EMCS with no 1.

I have NO regrets - because I had done it before I had everything planned and organised (childcare, moved downstairs to avoid stairs etc) and I had no issue looking after DC1 - just no lifting of a heavy toddler. It was so much calmer for me.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I had a successful vbac after an emergency section, induced - successful. 19 months in between. Both big babies.

I had the foley balloon and was 4cm, was literally waiting on a bed in the delivery suite. From waters breaking I was 2.5hrs until delivery and it healed any trauma I had from my section. Second degree tear, only gas and air. I’m pregnant again and going for another vbac.

It was night and day from section in terms of recovery x

I also had VBAC that was successful in that DD was delivered vaginally but like PP I haemorrhaged afterwards and was quite ill. There appeared to be no issues with scar so it may just have been one of those things. With the benefit of 18 years of hindsight I don’t regret it. Although there was an irony in that I wanted to attempt VBAC so I could get home quicker to my toddler and I ended up in hospital longer than if I’d had an elective CS. There was 2 years 8 months between births.

A friend also attempted VBAC that ended with a CS and she was glad she tried.

My advice having had emcs followed by 7 vbac deliveries followed by emcs for my 9th (and last) baby - if you only want 2/3 children have the c section. If you potentially want 4/5 children go for the vbac.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences! It’s such a hard decision!

As another poster has said, we made the decision to go for a VBAC after an elcs for breech because we knew we didn’t want to stop at 2. I have had 3 natural deliveries now - 2 with only gas and air and one with nothing as she came so fast. All absolutely fine deliveries and home same day each time.

This is likely our last baby (maybe one more if we are able to) I’m still undecided but really appreciate all your thoughts!

I decided ELCS. Never considered a VBAC. Tbh i didn’t trust the medics to make the right decision on when to go for a c section if the VBAC attempt wasn’t working.

There is another active thread today about a failed vbac i think, where the op ended up having a serious injury.

I had a elcs for dc2. It wasn't a hard decision for me, I preferred elcs for the easier scheduling and effect on my body. Looking after dc1 after a c-section wasn't a big concern as we had a 3 year gap and DH had 6 months paternity leave. DD attended nursery as usual on the day we booked the c-section and DH was present for the birth and recovery, then went to pick her up.
The surgery and healing was quick and straightforward.

If it makes any difference I was monitored really closely throughout induction and labour. ☺️

Emergency CS with first, VBAC with second 2 years later. The VBAC was quite quick and they monitored carefully afterwards.
It is a really tough decision!

It’s a very hard decision. In the end I decided on a second section because I found out that they wouldn’t let me use the nice birthing suites with pools due to wanting to be able to do continuous monitoring for a VBAC; as I was over 40yo they wouldn’t let me go overdue; and in that case if they wanted to induce me, having had a previous section they wouldn’t be able to use the most preferred induction methods [I can’t recall thE the types now]. Further if I was induced the threshold for deciding it wasn’t progressing well and switching to an emergency section was much lower than non-VBAC.
Not all of these factors will apply in all cases, but I had to dig a lot before the full picture was forthcoming which then actually made it quite an easy decision for me, after weeks of angst.

I had a VBAC, it was amazing but took a lot of preparation to achieve. There’s a really good Australian podcast called VBAC birth stories that I found so helpful.

Ive also been told the suggestion would be continuous monitoring and labour ward over birthing suite along with a suggestion to not go overdue but that is the guidance and I’m able to decline if I want to. Makes it all the more difficult to decide!

My older one will be just about to turn 3, but my husband only has two weeks of leave and we’ve no support locally so he’d have to be off nursery until I was able to take him. Last time I couldn’t drive for about 4 weeks. That’s a main factor in considering the vbac cause it feels really disruptive to him to mess up his routine!

First ds was a C-section and then had 3 VBAC's afterwards although one of those did result in an awful episiotomy.

Labour ward and continuous monitoring are recommended due to the risk of scar rupture. I opted for a plan “out of guidelines” and requested the birth centre as it was so close to the labour ward I knew I could be moved there quickly if needed. The risk of scar rupture is extremely low. There are other risk such as umbilical cord prolapse that are more likely and aren’t even mentioned during consultations. I knew I wanted limited interventions and the birth centre gave me the highest chance of achieving that, so I was confident to say no thank you to the recommendations. I did a lot of reading and thinking before I came to that conclusion though, it’s all a risk v benefits calculation!

This would probably be my approach if I did opt for a vbac. My consultant said risk of scar rupture is about 0.05% and the midwife led birthing suite is just down the corridor from the labour ward inside the same building!

I suppose it depends on your age gap? I had a just over 3 year gap and a successful VBAC after an elective section. Best decision ever! I was up and about within a few days.

Same here and I was very reassured by the proximity! My priority was to avoid a failed induction and an emergency CS due to the recovery with a toddler to look after. If I had got to 42 weeks with no sign of labour, I or if induction was recommended for any reason I would absolutely have gone for an elcs, as recovery seems to be so much better than for emcs. Thankfully I went into labour at 41 weeks, had an amazing midwife and managed a water birth. So worth it ❤️

I had an emergency C-section first, then vbac with gas and air 2.75 years later. I tore, and they sewed me up wrong, so I had to go back for an operation a month later to fix it, so not great for quick recovery in my case!