What is a VBAC?

A VBAC is medically defined as a Vaginal Birth after Cesarean.

To me, and one of the driving forces of why I am writing this blog, is that a VBAC is much more than that.

A VBAC is a personal, spiritual, physical, mental experience that you go through. And within the general VBAC experience, you have each element filled with complex processes. Any woman who is thinking of or attempting a VBAC will know this. There are so many social struggles we are still fighting against today that were set in place many years ago.  Raise your hand if you have ever heard the term "Once a cesarean, always a cesarean"? I have. It is probably something your OB has been exposed to or taught even.

The trip to convince an OB that VBAC is safe and an option for you can be a long road. It took me 7 months, that is right! 7 months to convince one OB of many in the practice to let me attempt a VBAC after 2 cesareans. One OB thought he knew everything better than me and actually laughed in my face when I talked to him about it. Not supportive at all, not to mention he misdiagnosised me when I got an infection once. So you really need to find an OB that you are going to jive with.

When considering a VBAC, it was a no brainer after researching and reading a few books. "Natural Birth after Cesarean" is a great book and I definitely learned alot from it. It is written by nurses and gives you the real deal and opened my eyes to even things I thought I knew and affirmed other things that I knew, like, "you can do it!"

Did you know that even after having 2 cesareans, if you are healthy otherwise, you can have a healthy VBAC and the risks are much lower? How many times have you heard "the risk is too high" or heard something about uterine rupture? Low and behold, research shows that alot of uterine ruptures are not on the cesarean line, which is the reason they will give you, and is often found when a cesarean is performed and is not related- this I learned from the book "Natural Birth after Cesarean." Your healing time as well, is so much less and you are able to walk and do things at a much faster pace. Not to mention, cesareans are major surgery!!! (With how common this procedure is today, some may not think so, but it definitely is!).

A VBAC venture will require that you dig deep into yourself and find the determination of "you can do it!" You may have a long road just to convince a OB to let you do one. Than do your research- when you approach your OB, go with the information you want them to know. Think of it as a midterm paper for a class without writing the paper- you need to convince the OB, who may not have all the information. And more importantly, you want to show that you are 1) serious about it and 2) you are informing yourself about everything regarding VBACs.

For some women, those who have been sexually abused or been told their were too small (that you had a small pelvic outlet), or had family members daunt them over their sexual/medical choices, or been affected by social stigma in any way, or anything else- you have to take the inner journey and work through it. If you have had issues surrounding your reproductive life socially, sexually, or medically, chances are some of it may come up when you go into labour. And you may not even know it. It could be what makes your uterus tight, your labour longer, your contractions more painful. Going through it can be extremely liberating for you and so beneficial to the experience you have. And you can ask, how do I know this. Well, to be honest, I have been affected by all the above. And I can say that I think that unconsciously or consciously it played a role in how my first labor played out and the difference between then and now is tremendous. That is the journey I am taking and I feel the difference, even in pregnancy. I encourage for you to do it as well.

The physical aspect of it, of course, would be diet, exercise, and things you do on the physical plane to get your body ready. For example, stretching for the opening of the pelvis, drinking pregnancy tea to tone the uterus, two of the many things I will talk about. It takes effort but it is so well worth it. For me, I weighed more than I should pre pregnancy- when I began the 3rd trimester, I was still about at my pre pregnancy weight- which is great news for me. I am finding as the third trimester continues, as the baby's weight continues to grow, I am having a very difficult time watching what I eat. So I will go through that process as well.

The mental aspect is of course the self education and the self determination to do it. You need both to be able to do a VBAC. That will be obvious when I post about that, but needing to have all of your body mind and spirit in sync is so important to have the best birth experience ever, regardless of your choice in the end.

That is my personal challenge and my challenge to you- try to sync the body mind and spirit for the best birth experience ever!