The Journey Begins

My VBAC journey started right after the premature birth of my daughter Bettie via emergency c-section at 33 weeks for breech presentation.  Many people say breech presentation is a variant of normal and warrants trying for a vaginal delivery, but, as many women have found, locating a medical professional who is trained and competent with vaginal breech delivery can be an ordeal.  It's a dying art.

My c-section experience wasn't positive--the surgery, the fact that 10 or more people touched my child before I did, the 18 hour wait to first touch her....  I've written about it here.

When Bettie finally got to come home and we got settled, I got curious about options for possible future deliveries.  I knew there was an out-of-hospital birth center in Chapel Hill.  I wasn't a candidate for their services with Bettie because of the high risk nature of my pregnancy and the breech presentation.  I reached out to them to ask about VBAC and was immediately told that they don't support VBAC unless the primary c-section had to be done under their care.

To me, that meant that future deliveries would need to be managed through a hospital.

I started to research everything I could about VBAC.  I learned about the risk of uterine rupture and the fact that, while it does happen, it happens very rarely (less than 1%).  There are so many other obstetric complications that have much higher and equally, if not more deadly consequences than uterine rupture in a scarred uterus.  I also learned that most uterine ruptures aren't the catastrophic variety.  They involve the scar opening up, but neither the mother nor the baby suffer any ill effects.

After looking at my c-section report, I verified that my surgery was done using a low transverse incision, making me an ideal candidate for a VBAC.  My records also mentioned that my doctor discussed vaginal breech delivery, which is a lie, but at this point, that's water under the bridge.

I read message boards and talked to people about VBACs.  I explored options and watched videos of a variety of births.  I decided that should I get pregnant again, I really wanted to give birth in the water.

I taught HypnoBirthing classes and attended births as a doula.  I was impressed by the women and families I was supporting and knew that if and when I got pregnant again, I definitely wanted an unmedicated VBAC in water.

My research continued as I tried to figure out how I could have a water VBAC in a hospital.  None of the hospitals in my area were supportive of water birth.  Many of the hospitals prohibit even laboring in the water once the mother's water breaks.  That was a little disheartening.

In talking to folks and reading, I learned about home birth midwifery.  I talked to a few women who had had beautiful home water births attended by certified nurse midwives and was intrigued.  I wasn't afraid of the idea of labor or delivery.  I knew I wanted as few interventions as medically necessary to ensure that I'd get to VBAC and not be coerced into a second c-section.  I decided at that point to start talking to home birth midwives.