Pregnant with twins or triplets and wanting a VBAC? In reality, if you’re pregnant with quads are more kids then the concept of VBAC is probably out of your reach. But if you can find an obstetrician willing to give it a go then go for it. Certainly, it may be much more difficult to find an obstetrician but there are some very experienced ones who have heaps of experience delivering twins or triplets vaginally after a previous Caesarean. You might have to travel but if you really want a VBAC then you are very committed. And you know there will be support groups on the Internet for your choice.
Should every obstetrician support your desire to have a vaginal birth if you’re pregnant with twins or triplets? Of course not. Here’s the reality of obstetrical training. It’s not as hands-on as it used to be. There’s more technology now. There are obstetricians who aren’t very good with forceps but really good at doing c-sections. You can’t expect obstetricians to know everything.
Dedicated to a VBAC?
It’s a bit difficult to understand whether women, like yourself, actually want to do the ‘labor’ part of a VBAC or just the vaginal part. Over the past 40 years, it appears that women are much more focused on the actual way their baby exits their body rather than the process it takes for that to happen.
Birthing Better VBAC online birth class are full of skills developed by fathers and mothers to deal with every type of birth with an effective set of birth and birth-coaching skills. And all these skills come from another set of skills that you’ll use to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body.
If you’re truly dedicated to birthing your twins or triplets vaginally after a previous c/s then you really must take responsibility to make that journey as safe as possible. Preparing your pregnant body to be able to open up, stay mobile, soft inside and spacious helps to reduce or prevent trauma to you or your babies. No obstetrician or midwife should be responsible for making certain your body is an effective birthing body.
Start around 24 weeks, work through the skills a little at a time so that you integrate the skills into your body/mind connection. Your pregnant body is a 3-dimensional container for your babies who are 3-dimensional objects. These objects need to open your cervix, come down through your bony pelvis and then down and out the birth canal. Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation skills deal with all these areas.
What happens if?
What is your headspace about actually achieving a vaginal birth after a previous Cesarean and are concerned about medical ‘interventions’ and believe birth is natural then stay at home alone and if/when you need medical care then seek it. Honestly, if you don’t want medical care to interfere with your possibility to birth your baby’s naturally then don’t go near an obstetrician or hospital. If however, you are ok with the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures (now called ‘interventions’) then your job is to use birth and birth-coaching skills to birth your baby’s no matter where, with whom or what is happening to or around you. This is truly your job!
There’s no doubt a surgical birth is not ‘natural’ and IS very modern. However, even if your babies are going to be born through a Cesarean, you are still pregnant now and you will give birth just like every single other pregnant woman.
Birthing Better families want to encourage and inspire you to focus first on your pregnancy, how to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body and how to use skills to birth your babies. That’s really the connection you’re looking for. It’s too easy for women to immediately feel disconnected once a decision to have a Cesarean is made. You can prevent that by using skills to prepare to birth and use your birth and birth-coaching skills on way to hospital, while being prepped and during the c-section.
Shift your mind
First, see yourself as pregnant with your babies. Second, see yourself as a birthing your babies no matter where, with whom or what is happening to or around you. Focus more on what you can do for yourself and your babies’ journey and not so much on the type of birth you want. At the same time as you become more skilled, create a Skills-based Birth Plan so your obstetrician or midwife knows what skills you are going to use. You and they will feel more confident in the process of doing the activity of giving birth. Take our word for it. It matters that you skillfully birth your babies because that is what you’ll remember rather than focusing on what you didn’t get or how ‘they’ treated you.
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.