High Risk Pregnancy, Hiring a Doula, Successful VBAC
I pee on the stick – and that 2nd line pops up… I put my toddler in the car and race to the store to buy more tests. They continue to say positive. Okay. I call my OB’s office to schedule the initial appointment to confirm this is real life (it wasn’t planned if you can’t tell). As the she’s scheduling the appointment she goes, “Okay. May 19th due date.. repeat C-Section..”
I interrupt her, “Oh wait, I want a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean).”
She chuckles and says, “Oh our only provider who allows VBACs only does them on Fridays; since you can’t control if you’ll go into labor or a Friday or not, it’ll have to be a C-Section”.
My mind is blown.
I literally had to switch provider institutions all together; at the hospital across town required all providers to allow women to TOLAC (trial of labor of cesarean), unless medically unsafe to do so. Thank God! So I’m all set to try for a VBAC, but – I still have Type 1 Diabetes. Meaning I’m still “high risk” and they want to induce me by 39 weeks. Ugh. (Diabetes and pregnancy will be a whole different blogpost)
Fast forward. I had heard of birth doulas before, but “knew” I couldn’t afford so I never put energy into looking for one. One day, when I was around 30 weeks along, something in me told me to ask the Green Lady downtown if she had doula recommendations. She promptly said Anna and handed me her business card. After our first phone call I knew she was the one for me… AND she accepted my insurance.
We quickly get some prenatal meetings scheduled as I was already approaching my due date. During our meetings she informs me the best chance for a successful VBAC is for it to be completely intervention free. I’m able to convince my provider to “let” me go until 41 weeks as long as I go in twice a week monitoring.
Everyday I would pray profusely to go into labor naturally. To have a successful VBAC. For healing from the trauma of my first birth and the guilt/regret I’ve felt for how it happened.
On Friday May 17th, my due date, I started having contractions. They were every 5 minutes all night long. But Saturday morning, they completely stopped. I was so discouraged and so tired. Saturday night came and again I had consistent contractions all night long. Sunday morning came… they were getting less intense and more spaced out. My doula came over and encouraged various positions and exercises to help my contractions get going again. It wasn’t until 8pm that evening that we decided to head to the hospital.
When we got there I was 5/6 CM dilated. For several hours I was on the yoga ball with my doula and husband on either side of me performing counterpressure. At one point my doula recommended I go pee (if you’re in birthwork you know how powerful sitting on the toilet can be!), during this time so much happened. I peed, vomitted, and my water broke; it made all of us laugh a little because it was suddenly so intense!
I was officially in transition. I was saying, “I’m done”, “I want to be done” and “I can’t do this anymore”. I was soo tired; I ended up laying on my side with a peanut ball in between my legs, falling asleep between each contraction.
I remember the most random memory popped in my head of my friend telling me she was watching a Tiktok video about how you don’t even have to push your baby out, your body could birth it by itself. This lead to a huge mindset shift; I decided if that’s true, then I’m done trying. I truly surrendered the rest of my birth to God. During each contraction I would say,
“This is between God and baby. God knows the time she’ll be born. This is between God and baby.”
Suddenly I felt the true involuntary “urge to push”. All the lights came on, nurses ran in, and provider gloved up. I was pushing with each contraction; I looked up at my husband and asked if this was finally happening, and he’s like “Oh yeah. Its happening.” Shortly after, at 3:34 am my daughter was born.
- Hiring a doula helped me to feel confident in my body and my decisions despite the still constant fear mongering happening. Who brought education, information, and FACTS to help me move forward in my intentions.
- If I didn’t have a doula, I would’ve gone into the hospital Friday night instead of Sunday night; they would’ve pushed pitocin for my labor “stalling” and I’m certain I would have had a repeat Cesarean.
- When I was in the absolute throws/horrors of labor I had a team of support to be my voice in refusing interventions and to continue letting my body birth my child.
I thank God for this beautiful gift. For my beautiful soul of a doula (I love you friend) and the experience of a VBAC. This experience propelled me into the birth world and led me to becoming a certified Birth Doula and Childbirth Educator.
My passion has become educating and empowering women to make informed decisions when it comes to how their body births. Check out http://www.sweetrosedoulaservices.com to get support for your birth.
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