My VBAC Story

Once a caesarean, always a caesarean! INCORRECT!

My daughter was born by emergency caesarean section in November 2006. When I got pregnant with my son my gynaecologist immediately advised me to opt for a second c-section. I was however determined to have a normal vaginal delivery. I had read about women having normal birth and really wanted to feel it for myself! My gynaecologist supported me and carefully explained that during labour if there was any sign of distress then she would immediately perform a C-section.

3 days before my due date, my doctor did a detailed test to check if the baby was distressed, but baby was fine and she said we could still wait. On Sunday 14th March, I was feeling unwell and at about 3pm in the afternoon I started having very slight pains, I thought it would just be a false alarm and decided to rest a bit. By 8 in the evening, after I put my daughter to sleep the pains got stronger and were more frequent. When my husband came back from work at 8.30pm, he timed that the contractions were 10 mins apart. We did not want to rush to the hospital so we had dinner and I took a nice long shower, knowing that I would not be able to shower for the next 10 days! At about 9.30pm the contractions were much stronger and we decided to head for the hospital. I picked up my hospital bag and kissed my daughter (who was fast asleep) goodbye. My mum in law stayed with my daughter. My husband drove quite slowly to the hospital whilst munching away on his popcorn; The pain was truly unbearable now as I could not move around! The contractions were now 8 minutes apart.

At the hospital I was admitted and asked to lie down on the bed! I told the nurses I felt better walking around through the contractions. But they insisted I had to lie down as they wanted to monitor the baby’s heart beat! They told me to “breath and blow” through the contractions. The pain was quite strong now and I opted to have the epidural, the anaesthetic lady came in after about half an hour and after a painful 20mins of inserting needles I finally had some relief and could relax. The nurses checked that I was already 4cm dilated, my gynaecologist came in to check and said we could wait only a maximum of 6 hours, if the labour did not progress then they would wheel me into the theatre for a c-section! She burst my water bag and put me on some drip to speed the labour up! The nurses were very nice and warm, they prepared a bed for my husband and asked him to rest, I switched on my mp3 player and was listening to my prayers. I could still feel the pain of the contractions and was quite uncomfortable as one leg was numb and the other wasn’t! I was also shivering as this was the side effect of the epidural. At about 4am in the morning I was 6cm dilated, the nurse told me “your baby will be born soon” I was so happy to hear these words as throughout the labour I had the fear of going into the operation theatre!

BY 4.30am I could feel the “passing like motion” feeling and my gynaecologist came in and told us you will have your baby in your arms by 5am! The nurses gently explained to me how to position myself and as they monitored the machine, they told me when to push, I think I pushed for the longest time ever although it was just for about 20 mins, I was so hungry and told my gynaecologist that I have no strength to push anymore, she jokingly told me to think about a nice big breakfast and PUSH. My husband felt the hair of the baby as it appeared! Finally, the head of the baby came out and with one more push my darling baby boy was born at exactly 5am . It was the best feeling ever when the doctor announced that it was a baby boy, as we did not know the gender of the baby! I held my baby in my arms as the umbilical cord was cut, all the 4 months of morning sickness and the labour pains were forgotten when I looked at my baby and kissed him! I will always treasure this moment! They took the baby away and cleaned him up, he weighed 2.8kg and had an APGAR score of 9.

My husband was busy taking pictures and couldn’t believe that he had a son! I had a few stitches and was very tired afterwards; I threw up while feeding my son and later could not even eat the BIG breakfast! I went to sleep for a few hours as my husband went home to rest and announce the good news to the proud little big sister!!!!

VBAC - Vaginal Birth After Caesarean