VBAC, Safe?

Monday, February 19, 2007
Vaginal Birth After Cesarean – VBAC, Is VBAC Safe?

Studies show that women who have had a cesarean birth but go on to birth vaginally are likely to experience the following:

Lower risk of postpartum infection resulting from the cesarean surgery

Less blood loss

Lower risk of needing a blood transfusion

Lower risk of developing dangerous blood clots

Lower risk of infertility in the future

Less risk of damage to your internal organs during surgery

Lower risk of complications from general or regional anesthesia

Lower risk of needing a hysterectomy

Less difficulty with mother-baby bonding and attachment

Lower risk of breathing difficulties for babies

Less difficulty with breastfeeding

Lower risk of developing complications in future pregnancies with placenta previa (placenta grows in lower portion of the uterus, covering the cervix) and placenta accreta (placenta grows into the uterine wall and cannot separate from uterus after birth). The complications increase with each additional cesarean birth .

The midwives of Blessed Beginnings have cared for many VBAC women and all have gone on to give birth vaginally (as of 01-01-04).

For the latest evidence on VBAC and repeat cesarean birth, see A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth at www.vbac.com/chapter38.html#1. At Blessed Beginnings we strongly encourage women to do additional research on VBAC to help them make an informed choice.

In today’s medical environment, hospitals and physicians are often banning VBACs or even attempts at VBACs. At Blessed Beginnings we are dedicated to preserving a woman’s right to choose her desired birth and that includes VBAC. We support her right to choose and we believe VBAC is the safest choice for most women.

Not only are we committed to providing informed consent, we fully discuss risk factors, monitoring, current studies and statistics as well as prevention techniques that contribute to successful VBAC experiences. We carefully review your medical & obstetric history, discuss birthing options and develop a care plan with you, keeping in mind all your desires for a normal birth.

Research shows a normal vaginal birth after cesarean is entirely possible and more probable with the attendance of midwives. The midwives at Blessed Beginnings encourage women to educate themselves regarding physician and hospital policies in the rare case of a transport.* Women may find VBAC policies that include continuous fetal monitoring, IV access (with or without fluid attached), withholding of food and liquids, and restriction of maternal movement. Very often the clock will be ticking and time limits of labor imposed in a hospital setting. On the other hand, Susan and Karen believe birth is a normal process not subjected to time limits or physical restraints, and they highly recommend continued nourishment and hydration during labor, freedom of movement, hydrotherapy for pain and other “tricks of the trade” to ease the discomforts of labor.

At Blessed Beginnings a woman chooses her birth place, labor positions, attendees, environment and receives continued encouragement to birth her baby in her own way! Susan and Karen believe birth is a significant life experience that can be achieved vaginally. It should be a time of peace, exhilaration, joy and growth for a family that will be treasured for a lifetime.

For more research based information, resources and VBAC support go to www.vbac.com and www.ican-online.org

* At your request, Blessed Beginnings would be happy to provide you information regarding our birth, cesarean and VBAC statistics, client referrals as well as references for current medical statistics and studies.

A Personal Story of a VBAC

“14 years before Katie was born I had what I believe was an unnecessary cesarean section (with general anesthesia). A VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) homebirth was our dream. For 14 years I would get so sad about my first birth experience and how traumatic it was. When I became pregnant with Katie, my OB/GYN’s first words after telling us congratulations were, “We’ll schedule your c-section”. We were absolutely appalled and thus began the search for an OB that would support us in our VBAC attempts. I was told a homebirth was completely out of the question. We also knew we wanted to use the Bradley Method and while researching Bradley teachers, we were told by who would become our Bradley teacher that we absolutely could have a homebirth and she referred us to Susan Gill. We had some concerns about what would happen in the case of needing to transport to the hospital as our OB/GYN had put the fear of uterine rupture into our heads (we would later learn that the risk of uterine rupture in the case of VBAC was less than 1%). Sue was wonderful and put together a list for us of situations which would require transport.

To make a VERY long labor story a little shorter, after seven nights of prodromal labor, a small amniotic leak and several false alarms, I finally went into productive labor. After laboring for about 12 hours and pushing for 4 hours, there was a problem and our midwives Sue and Karen consulted with my husband and they decided it was time to go to the hospital. Sue went with us to the hospital and was with us every step of the way. After several more hours of labor, and 4 more hours of pushing, our beautiful daughter Katie was born!! She was healthy and gorgeous and born vaginally!!

I know in my heart without Sue’s support I would have lost control over the birth process, the nurse/doctor would have taken over and we would have ended up with a ton of medically unnecessary interventions and another c-section. Sue was at my side every minute, emotionally and physically supporting me and my husband. She ran interference for us when the nurse and doctor tried to convince us we needed all sorts of things we knew we didn’t need. These could have potentially affected our birth outcome and ultimately, our daughter Katie’s health. Sue was a true angel in our most intense time of need and she’ll forever hold a special place in our hearts.”

Deana: http://www.blessedbeginnings.net/vbac.html