Afraid a VBAC will harm you or your baby? If you feel labor or a vaginal birth will harm your baby you are not likely to have a VBAC. No woman will risk her baby’s health or wellness. If you think a vaginal birth after a cesarean might be harmful to you or your baby you have to investigate that with your obstetrician or midwife. Get your head sorted out first as to reality compared to anxiety. If everything is fine in your pregnancy and your baby is doing well then you have to trust that first and foremost. Then you have to determine how much medical assessments, monitoring and procedures (‘interventions’) you will feel comfortable with to keep you both healthy.
Women don’t talk much about their pregnancy/birth anxieties but all women experience those feelings. It’s hard-wired into our very bodies. The best way to deal with pregnancy and birth anxiety is to investigate and pay attention.
When there is no medical care available birth is both safe and not safe
If a thousand non-pregnant women were together in a room for 24 hours, even with many personal health issues, there is little chance something major would occur to any of those women. Yet if 1000 pregnant women were in labor there might be quite a number of issues that arise … few life-threatening but still unnerving.
This means you have to face the fact that any birth can be problematic and your anxiety is not uncommon. This anxiety can be increased by the medical profession as well.
What can you do?
Birthing Better families want you to consider an entirely different approach to your concern as to whether a VBAC can harm your baby. Instead of merely focusing on the ‘outcome’ shift your focus to your preparation for your baby’s birthing journey and then focus on how you cope and manage the hard work of labor you must do so you can have the vaginal birth.
When you become skilled, prepare your pregnant body for the VBAC, learn, practice and ultimately use your birth and birth-coaching skills the anxiety you feel might still be there … and that’s ok… yet your skills become the actions you take at every moment of the birthing process. Your birth skills then work alongside your obstetrician or midwife whose skills are used to assess and monitor your well being. Doing the work of giving birth well and with skills can reduce and prevent many issues that surround a long and delayed labor and birth.
Your skills help to safeguard your wellness and your baby’s as well as growing your confidence and capability.
Birthing Better skills were developed by moms and dads in the early 1970s in the US and used by many thousands globally in all types of birth. Birthing Better VBAC online birthing class is housed in Common Knowledge Trust.