You want VBAC tips for a successful vaginal birth after your previous cesarean. We’re here to wake you up, open your Mind and get your partner really involved in helping you. Because Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation is so unique, we have to compare what you’ll find on Google to the skills Birthing Better families developed in the early 1970s.
In order to guide you through increasing your understanding of how to best prepare for a VBAC and manage the labor as it unfolds, I’ve gone through the TOP sites on page #1 of Google’s search term: VBAC Tips
Here you go. Everything everyone is telling you is accurate. However, there are glaring omissions and some information our Trust, Common Knowledge, needs to clarify. Together let’s go through a short form of every website on page one for VBAC Tips. HINT: This will be very short form because you can click and read more on each site.
This is FUN! And so very educational. Every link will open in a new window for your convenience.
Birthing Better comments are in ( ).
VBAC tips
- Educate yourself … What means? ‘Educate’ is a very broad term but normally focuses on the pros/cons, dangers and safety of VBAC
- supportive provider ... Sure!
- VBAC friendly hospital … Great idea
- Consider your options like home birth … Yup, if possible for you
- Doula … Why not?
- Believe in your Birth Plan … ( Oh… tricky. Birthing Better families created a 2nd Birth Plan full of the SKILLS they have learned to prepare their pregnant body to give birth as well as great birth and coaching skills. We have those in spades)
Basically the VBAC Tips are the same as above.
- Get information
- Seek answers
- Read
- Get informed
- Believe in yourself
(No mention of becoming skilled. Why is this concept missing? Is giving birth an activity? Birthing Better families certainly considered giving birth the most important activity we ‘do’ as pregnant women. Giving birth is like an Olympic Event or climbing Mt. Everest. Do you think these people are skilled? You need to be too!)
- Read … Oh my goodness, overwhelmed by information!
- Class VBAC … (What does that VBAC class offer? Is there one near you? Birthing Better VBAC skills offers you an online course to learn Birthing Better skills in the privacy of your own home. Start anytime before you get pregnant, early in pregnancy and definitely around 24 weeks pregnant if possible. If you’re 40+ weeks pregnant you can still learn one or more Birthing Better skills and you’ll have more VBAC success.)
- Be willing to switch providers ...Great idea if possible
- Be part of decision making … (Easier to make decisions if you are also skilled because you’re more likely to be birthing effectively and handling the natural occurring pain therefore be making decisions if you or your baby’s wellbeing needs more attention)
- Plan for natural birth … (Love that word ‘natural’ but what does that actually mean? If you succeed in your VBAC but have every intervention possible, have you had a ‘natural birth’? Birthing Better families made a commitment to work through their baby’s birth journey no MATTER WHAT! That means a Birthing Better birth is empowered no matter the circumstances. Why should your baby’s birth be considered ‘less’ or ‘imperfect’ under any circumstances?)
- Labor at home as long as possible… (Great idea particularly if you’ve learned The Internal Work audio in Birthing Better online course. You and your baby’s final passage way … your vagina … you’ll also learn to ‘check’ yourself. Doing so …not hard to do … will help you make the right decision when to either go to hospital or call your midwife)
- Prepare for c-section without expecting one … (Birthing Better families will say this differently. Prepare to give birth, use skills and keep using your skills no matter how your baby’s birth unfolds)
- Work through fears … (BIG issue. Birthing Better families would say this differently. They would tell you it does NOT matter if you trust birth or are terrified. When you have skills you’ll be able to use those skills regardless of the emotions you have. We even have a special eBook (FREE to YOU NOW) called Positive and negative voice in birth
- Choose where you will birth
- Know the facts
- Understand your previous c-section … (This is SO important! This is what Birthing Better families want to tell you. If there was a medical reason you feel necessitated your previous c-section you will not have the same negative feelings if you believe you had an unnecessary c/s. This is the next thing you need to know. 99.9999999999999% of all Caesareans occur during the ‘labor’ or ‘labour’. This means Birthing Better families created skills to reduce and prevent ‘issues’ from becoming ‘problems as well as skills to cope with the natural occurring pain of labor/labour contractions.)
- Kick out negative ... (Sorry, Birthing Better families just don’t believe this is either necessary nor right. Here’s the reasons why. Human Women are hard-wired to feel anxious during pregnancy, before and sometimes during birth. This is GOOD. We become more AWARE! Our awareness helps us make decisions. If you feel negative thoughts honor them! Use your skills to work with and around any emotions you have! DO NOT TRY TO BE POSITIVE IF YOU DON’T FEEL THAT WAY. Become skilled and you’ll feel more confident)
- Join ICAN … (Yup, and tell them to become a Birthing Better affiliate!)
- Chiropractor … Sure. Use everything and everyone
- Doula
- Be ready for adversity … Great idea. (When you and your partner are skilled you will meet adversity and challenges with your skills and more capability)
- Have a support team
- Belly wrap … Great idea. (You want your baby to move into the top of your bony pelvic tube. You’ll find all these skills in the video segments of Birthing Better as well as Pelvic Soft Tissue as well as Positions for your baby)
- Position baby … (Your baby’s position has become complex. When you learn Birthing Better skills you’ll be able to Map Your Pelvis and know the shape your baby has to move through. Over 95% of all posterior babies turn prior to labor, in labor or in 2nd stage. With Birthing Better skills you’ll be able to create space inside your body for your baby whether your baby is posterior or just big relative to your internal space. And you’ll learn to mobilise your sacrum so you can ease ‘back labor/labour’.)
- Raspberry tea … Great!
- Take care of scar … Great idea (The woman who wrote this post talked only about massaging the scar on her belly. Your belly scar has NOTHING to do with your VBAC success. The scar on your uterus is another Birthing Better VBAC Tip. You won’t be able to feel that scar until about 7 months pregnant unless you had a classical C-section scar. Feel through your belly muscles and flesh (yes, fat) and find the uterine scar. Gently massage the tender areas. Scars do NOT tear. The tissue on the SIDE of a scar can tear)
- Have two birth plans … (This woman has a WONDERFUL VBAC tip. Make a Birth Plan about another Cesarean whether a non-laboring one or perhaps an unplanned one during labor/labour. Given that Birthing Better families really emphasis a Skills-based Birth Plan, now you can make 3! Just remember to tell your Obstetrician, midwife and doula what skills you’ve been learning and they will see you use. Also emphasis that you want them to encourage you and your partner to use your skills)
- Avoid induction … (Birthing Better families would tell you this. No matter what types of medical assessments, monitoring and procedures (AMPs) you experience, none of them PREVENT you from using your skills. Don’t use the word ‘intervention’. Induction may not be what you want but you might have one. This all harks back to that funny word ‘natural’. Don’t let an induction or any other medical care to stop you from skillfully birthing your baby!)
- Make peace with self … Yes. (Don’t let your own Mind or anyone else reduce your baby’s birth in any way. Society is never healthy when one woman says to another: ‘ I had a natural birth. You had a c-section’ OR ‘My son was a natural birth. My daughter was a Cesarean’. This is crazy. Use Birthing Better or other skills to birth your baby! Make peace with yourself)
- Connect with your baby ... Yup. (Birthing Better families really pay attention to their baby. Your baby gives you messages and you’ll learn how to ‘read’ contractions and know exactly what positions your baby likes and doesn’t. Also, this has to do with feeling anxious or scared. If at any time you feel you or your baby are at risk, seek medical care. If you feel you and your baby are both well then continue. Connect with your baby)
- The risks are small
- Birth is normal
- If your OB schedules a c-section, they are not supportive
- You can do it
Yup to all these VBAC tips. (Still no mention of becoming skilled).
- Be stubborn ... (Birthing Better families would like to share this. When it comes to you and your baby’s wellbeing don’t be stubborn. Be guided by your skills, senses, culture or faith. Being too ideological about achieving a VBAC can hinder your ability be objective and sensible. Skilled birthing women are always more likely to be stubborn when they feel everything is fine and flexible when/if they feel it’s necessary)
- Get support
- Prepare in all ways … mentally and physically (Although the word ‘physically’ is used in the linked post, there is no mention of becoming skilled to birth your baby)
- Prepare emotionally
- Education
- Patience
- Comments from women
Birthing Better VBAC Tips
- Learn skills to specifically prepare your pregnant body to birth your baby whether you plan to labor/labour and have a vaginal birth; whether your labor/labour morphs to an unplanned Cesarean or you want, need or are pressured to have a non-laboring Caesarean.
- Learn birth and birth-coaching skills then use those skills to work through your baby’s birth journey no matter where, with whom or what happens.
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 classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust.