I wanted to take a moment to share my VBAC story for anyone needing encouragement!
To give some background, I am a certified nurse midwife at a practice that is not particularly VBAC friendly. We don't offer inductions for TOLAC but will TOLAC pts in spontaneous labor. I wish we could change some protocols, but that's a different story.
5 yrs ago, I had a c/s at 37 wks with my first due to non-reassuring fetal heart tones. I was induced for a severe growth restriction and she did not tolerate labor at all very early in the process. I was reluctant to have another child due to really not wanting a repeat c/s.
When I got pregnant, I debated going to a different practice that was more VBAC friendly but due to a series of circumstances, I decided to stay with my own practice knowing I may have a repeat c/s. Towards the end of pregnancy, my baby was trending small again and was worried there was no chance I'd get a VBAC. The MD recommended I don't wait much past my due date due to AMA and baby being small for gestational age with my history of growth restriction. So I scheduled a c/s and hoped that I would go into labor. I did all of the things though admittedly inconsistently - dates, RLT, evening primrose oil, chiropractor, sex, walking, pelvic floor PT, collected colostrum.
4 days before my scheduled c/s, I woke up at 5am with intense ctxs, unable to sit down or rest, showed up at my office 4 hrs later where my water broke spontaneously and I was 2cm. Walked over to L&D where I got an epidural by 11a, was complete and pushing by 3p and had a successful VBAC after about 15-20 min! My second baby was still small, but over a pound bigger than my first. I am still in shock that everything fell into place and I ended up with a VBAC. While pushing, I told everyone in the room I just couldn't believe this actually happened.
So, if you are discouraged by waiting for spontaneous labor, you are definitely not alone!