There’s a conflict of interest between the medical profession and women’s choices when those choices seem to fly in the face of medical rationality and lack of experience by obstetricians. We have to think this through together. Making a choice to go against professional opinion is unnerving for sure and many women just plain cave in. Those few women who choose to try a VBAC after multiple c/sections will either be successful or not. Keep in mind that the present low-lying caesarean incision that has been done for the past 30 years changed the risk to those pregnant women who wanted to have a ‘trial of labor’ in order to achieve a VBAC. Prior to the early 1980s, the standard practice was to cut the uterine muscles up and down in what is called a ‘classical’ cesarean. This type of damage to the uterine muscles was responsible for an increased risk of ‘uterine rupture’.
Uterine rupture
Even though the low lying procedure has decreased the risk of uterine rupture there are factors that put women at higher risk. The major one is simple. How close together are your pregnancies? A low laying uterine incision is really a separation of the muscle fibers which permits better healing. However, it takes about a year for this healing to complete. When women get pregnant within a year of a c/s that incision becomes more vulnerable because the uterus grows like a balloon stretching that healing tissue.
The first real thing you need to think about is whether your pregnancies are well spaced.
Have you labored?
Another thing you should also consider is whether you’ve labored in any of your births or not. If you have not previously labored then this VBAC will be your first. This means that your body is like a first time birthing woman even if this is your 4th pregnancy. Every birthing body learns how to open up better from doing the activity of giving birth. You know this. First-time labors tend to be slower because the process is newer to the body.
If you’ve already labored then you become a ‘first-time’ birther at the point when your Caesaran was done. In other words, if you got to 8cm then your body knows how to get to 8cm. It doesn’t know how to get to 10cm and your birth canal does not know how to open to let out a large object … your baby.
These two factors should be considerations to your choice to have a VBAC after multiple c-sections. This does not mean you should not seek and attempt a vaginal birth even if there are multiple risks in your pregnancy.
Good news
There is absolutely no correlation between a number of risks in pregnancy and birth and the ability of a baby to be born easily or a woman able to cope and handle the natural occurring pain of labor contractions. In fact, you are much more likely to have a c/s because you get overwhelmed by labor pains!
Get skilled
Birthing Better VBAC online birth class is full of skills to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body as well as birth and birth coaching skills. These skills were developed by families like yours. This means Birthing Better childbirth skills work. You just have to seriously choose to become a skilled birthing woman and birth-coaching father.
Choosing or wanting a VBAC after multiple cesareans are just one aspect of being successful. We can’t comment on your life and circumstances. We can tell you that being highly skilled will directly lead to an increased ability to achieve a VBAC and you need to tell your obstetrician or midwife what skills you are learning. In other words, create a Skills-based Birth Plan as well as your conventional one. Then use your skills. Behave in a way that shows you are coping well.
Skilled birthing women have more effective labors which are totally important to your obstetrician or midwife. They certainly don’t want your trial of labor after multiple caesareans to go on and on.
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