POSITIVE VBAC birtH

At the time the country went into lockdown, I went into labour.

When I found out I was pregnant with our second child, I knew I wanted try for a Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC). The birth of our first daughter ended in an emergency caesarean after an induction when I was 37 weeks (due to her measuring small at the check-up). I felt as though there were many things I did not know about birthing the first time round, and I wanted to give my body the best chance at birthing naturally the second time.

At 36 weeks, my husband Darryl and I attended Karmaura’s Hypnobirthing workshop in Yungaburra. We immediately felt relaxed – Alana teaches with such passion and sincerity! We left feeling excited and confident that we would have a positive birthing experience.

In the weeks leading up to our second daughter’s birth day, I worked hard to prepare my mind and body. I listened to my hypnobirthing tracks every day, studied the resources in my portfolio and did everything I could to prepare myself mentally and physically.

I was 39+2 weeks when I felt my first contraction in the middle of the night. Contractions were coming every 10 minutes, lasting a minute long. Little did I know I had just started a 38-hour marathon!

With every surge, I practiced deep breathing and kept my body mobile to give bub the best chance to position correctly. I read my visualisation cards and positive mantras that I had laid out. This helped me surrender to each surge rather than tense and fight against them, which I had done previously with our first child out of fear.

I also used my acupuncture cheat sheet and sniffed clary sage as often as I could. Darryl was an incredibly supportive birth partner. He used the skills we had learnt in our workshop to help me through my surges.

At first, I would use our ‘surge signal’ to let him know I was getting a contraction, but after a while all he had to do was listen to my breathing change and he would start the ‘light touch’ exercises he’d learnt from the workshop, which I really loved.

Riding the waves

He kept telling me “you’ve got this!” and encouraged me the whole way through. We were both so excited to be meeting our baby. I definitely couldn’t have done it without him.

At the 24-hour mark, contractions were coming regularly and it was time to go in to hospital. We knew going in that due to COVID-19, we were only allowed 1 support person and we would have to be discharged 6 hours after birth.

This motivated me even more to have a VBAC, so we would be able to take our baby home and isolate ourselves as soon as possible.

I was absolutely exhausted upon arrival. They examined me and I was only 2cm dilated, but fully effaced. Although I felt defeated, Darryl kept reminding me that “you can do this, you ARE doing this!”.

3 hours later my waters broke and we noticed meconium.

Riding the waves

This unfortunately meant that I had to be monitored for the rest of my labour. By this time, I had only progressed to 4cm.

Darryl instinctively started our ‘slow dance’ technique, until I felt that my body just couldn’t stand up anymore. I hadn’t kept any food or water down since contractions had started and I desperately needed a rest.

I requested an epidural which was initially declined due to the chance of rupture because of my previous caesarean scar.

However, upon the doctor’s assessment of myself and bub’s heart rate, he was happy to arrange an epidural to give me some rest before pushing baby out.

My whole body was shaking with adrenaline and I knew I needed to get my head back in the game, so I played my hypnobirthing tracks which helped me regain focus and feel calm.

2 hours later I was 10cm dilated! We started our “baby time” playlist and after a few hours of pushing, our beautiful baby girl Jessica was here.

I felt absolutely euphoric! We did it together; mother, father, midwife and baby. What an incredible team!

She was immediately placed on my chest and let out a healthy cry. We had skin-to-skin cuddles for 1 whole, beautiful hour.

So worth it, what a team

Darryl and I definitely felt more in control and less fearful of birth this time around because of the knowledge and skills we gained from our hypnobirthing course. I was confident that my body knew exactly what to do, I just had to trust it.

Thank you, Alana, for helping me realise this. The work you are doing with all expectant parents will have a lasting impact on generations to come!