I Was Tired of Being Told No | My VBAC Story

This story of VBac (Vaginal Birth after Caesarian) was shared by one of our Stay at Home Mum community members, Crystal.  We thank her for sharing her story with us here at Stay at Home Mum. If you would like your own story featured on the Stay at Home Mum page, please send your unique story to [email protected]. 

When I became pregnant with my first child, I had no idea how I wanted to birth. To be honest, I never even thought about it. I assumed I’d have this perfect pregnancy, then I’d go to the hospital and they’d tell me what to do.  Little did I know just how much work it was! I had a pretty good pregnancy, a bit of bleeding first trimester that scared the life out of me, and then from that point on, it was almost perfect.  A bit of heartburn here or there, sleepless nights in my last trimester and lots of weeing, but nothing to write home about.

When I was 38 weeks, I saw an OB at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.  He saw that I was a diabetic and instantly said, “This baby will be HUGE, we need to induce right away! There is no way you can push out a big baby.” Now remember when I said I hadn’t thought about birth?  This is that moment when I wish I had researched more.  I naively said yes to my induction and two days later we were off.

I had the whole list of intervention- gels, then the drip, then gas, and eventually after 12 hours of being hit by a train, I asked for the epidural.  We were told an hour later that our son was in distress and that we needed a c-section. I said yes and two hours later, 7lbs 6oz of pure perfection was put in my arms!

After it was all said and done, I was happy to have a healthy baby but saddened by the fact that I was not able to have a natural delivery.

We fell pregnant 19 months later and I was adamant that I wanted my VBAC.  We had switched hospitals and I knew that VBAC’s were a safe option for birth.  After 8 months of pursuing a VBAC, we were told that we should just have a c-section because second babies tend to be bigger and that should our baby die due to our choice to VBAC, I would be to blame.  Needless to say, after that we let fear determine our birth and our second son was born via c-section.  He was 8lb 11oz of cheeky goodness!

I however, developed a severe infection after my c-section and became septic.  Three weeks after his birth, I almost died.  It was then that I realized I never ever wanted to have another c-section again.

We unfortunately lost our 3rd child in the second trimester but I was still determined to have a VBAC.

When we fell pregnant 3 months later,  I knew what I needed to do. I had done my research and knew that I’d have this baby naturally.  We opted for a home birth as we felt unsupported by the hospital staff with a VBAC.  I had a picture perfect pregnancy. We hired an independent midwife and had all of our antenatal visits at home. She quickly became family.

As we neared my due date, I was so excited!  We were going to meet our sweet GIRL any day now!  On her due date, I woke up at about 1 am with a stomach ache – my first real experience with natural labour pains.  I used the toilet and then back to bed.  By 4 am my pains were actually coming in waves.  Every 4-5 minutes.  I rang my midwife and my other support person and we waited.  My two boys pottered around the house while I laboured. My contractions were pretty strong and all of this was so new to me!  I went into labour on my own!  My body knew what to do and it was doing it perfectly!

I walked, sat, yelled, bounced on my fit ball and waited for my sweet girl to make her entrance.  Soon my midwife arrived and I was in transition!  I started to freak out, but my husband and midwife kept me perfectly calm.  It soon came time to push.  I was surprised at how my body actually knew what to do and was doing it without me having to try!

My 2 year old son and husband sat next to me as we welcomed our daughter into the world.  It was the most intense and incredible feeling!  I held my sweet girl and kissed her gooey face!  She was my biggest of all my kids – a healthy 10lb 4oz of squishy goodness!  She was perfect in every way and I did it!  I allowed and trusted my body to do it’s job and it did!

Thank you so much to Crystal for sharing her story.  

Please, share your thoughts in the comments below and if you would like to share your story about the life as a parent, please email [email protected]. We look forward to reading them.