Your personal circumstances should determine whether you try for a VBAC. Always keep in mind that you got pregnant to have a baby not a vaginal birth or a surgical one. The reasons for having your previous Cesarean are as varied as the reasons why you would want to try to have a vaginal birth after one. There are very good reasons why it’s better for both the mother and child to go through labor and a vaginal birth. There are also very good reasons why it’s better for both to experience a Caesarean delivery. And sometimes good reasons for a surgical c/s pop up unexpectedly during the birth.
There’s heaps of research for you to discover on the Internet that will give you the pros and cons of both a VBAC and Caesarean. Here are some other things you can do:
- Make a list, check it twice.
- Talk to your birth provider and family members.
- Imagine how you will feel in the future about the birth you HAVE not the one you necessarily CHOOSE.
There’s more
You can do all the research you want and make very detailed choices and yet feel very unsettled inside and uncertain about whether you’ve made the right choice. What does this unsettled feeling mean when thinking about trying for a vaginal birth after your cesarean? Being unsettled about giving birth almost always comes from a lack of skills.
Birthing Better Online Birth Class will give you all the skills to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body. Using these skills to create space inside your body will make it easier for your baby to come down, through and out of your body. Birthing Better is also full of the birth and birth coaching skills to use throughout your baby’s birth journey. This is so important because if you look and sound freaked, overwhelmed and stressed then you are much more likely to end up with medical care including having a surgical delivery.
Your responsibility
If after all your research you determine that you should and you want a VBAC then become highly skilled. No one can do this for you. Here are some of the skills you need to learn and practice: Hip Lift (create space side to side in your pelvis), Sacral Manoeuvre (create space front to back inside your pelvis), Pelvic Clock (soften inside your pelvis to help dilate your cervix), Positions that are best for your baby (many recommended body positions advocated in birth actually hinder how your baby can navigate down, through and out your body).
Then there are birth and birth-coaching skills such as: Directed Breathing (learn the best breathing techniques and how to open your birthing body with each inhalation), Communication (both non-verbal and verbal), Deep Touch Relaxation (cue the birthing woman’s body to soften inside the pelvis) and Negative/Positive Voice (manage well even if you hate every moment). There are more skills as well.
Your VBAC
Your VBAC success will be determined by how well you cope, manage, deal with, work through, handle, stay on top of and be in control of the natural occurring pain of each labor contraction. In order to get through to the vaginal birth part of your VBAC you have to do the hard work of the labor part. Labor contractions are hard because there is natural occurring pain of each contraction. We have skills for all 5 phases of every contraction and skills to read whether your baby likes the positions you are in. So many birth and birth-coaching skills available that lead to successful vaginal births after previous Caesareans.
Your Caesarean
If you decide to either labor and then have a cesarean if necessary or choose a non-laboring c/s then you can still totally enjoy preparing your pregnant body to become a birthing body. Your pregnant body is preparing to labor and have a vaginal birth. Your Mind is preparing for medical delivery. But you’re pregnant so enjoy this Time.
Then use your skills during the labor, while being prepped and in surgery or on the way to hospital, while being prepped and during the surgical delivery. You got pregnant to have a baby so use your skills to work with your baby’s birthing journey. Giving birth is always an activity you are doing no matter what. Any activity takes Time. Fill that Time with using skills and be engaged, involved, active and a true participant by using skills to birth your baby.
Birthing Better VBAC birth skills are housed in Common Knowledge Trust