Can’t believe I get to share this as my story. I feel so lucky in how my second birth unfolded.
First birth: spontaneous labour at 40 weeks, labour stalled at 5cm after 24 hours. Baby had heart decels and c section followed. Couldn’t hold or feed baby for the first 5 hours due to medication/ exhaustion. Recovery was long and hard.
Prep for VBAC: podcasts, private midwife, books and yoga. Had a crisis of confidence in the last month, totally doubted I could do it.
Second birth: 39+5 had a ‘period’ like feeling all day then at 11.30pm baby did a big kick and I felt a pop. My waters had broken! Contractions started right away. I tried to rest but they came on strong and fast, I couldn’t connect with any of my hypnobirthing tracks or meditations as the waves were just coming too strong.
Husband called our private midwife, she came over at 1.30am, I was worried it was too early (they can’t be with you for more than 12 hours and my labour was very long and slow previously). She did a cervical check and I was 3-4 cm.
I got slight relief being in the shower but it didn’t last long so I got out. I put on the tens machine and that stayed on for the rest of my labour! The midwife detected some decels in the baby’s heart rate on the Doppler and was concerned. She offered another cervical check even though it was just an hour later to see if I had progressed fast and that was the cause of the decels. Turns out she was right! I was 7cm! No wonder things felt intense.
We got to the hospital at 4am. The check in midwife ticked early labour on my admission form and my private midwife corrected her and said we needed a birth suite asap! I managed to walk myself up to the birth suite and felt the fetal ejection reflex in the lift! I got into birth suite and the hospital midwives were frantically trying to track baby’s hr with the CTG due to the decels I had at home, but they couldn’t find it, turns out baby was too low in my pelvis!
Just 17 minutes after getting into birth suite I pushed my baby out. We had skin to skin for hours and we were discharged the same day!
My recovery has been so smooth. I was aiming for a better birth no matter what eventuated and I feel so proud of myself and lucky that I got to have my VBAC.
Thanks to everyone who shared their stories in this group. I found them so helpful in my prep. Wishing everyone the outcome they hope for!