Green Options

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Editor’s Note:  This VBAC birth story is from guest writer Heather Garvet. Heather blogs at A Mama’s Blog, where she has written other posts on C-sections, VBACs, breastfeeding, pregnancy, and birth issues, as well as her two boys.

I had a C-section with the birth of my first son, Ryan, in 2004, only because he was a breech baby, and refused to turn.  I wasn’t very informed on other alternatives for turning breech babies at the time, other than the external version, and accepted having a C-section was the only way to give birth to my baby.

I was thrilled of course, to have my new baby after the C-section.  The hospital was very baby friendly and I was “allowed” to nurse Ryan while I was in the recovery room.  As soon as I was out of recovery though, the problems started for me.  I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and stared vomiting.  That was the worse pain I have ever experienced.  The nurses were trying to get me out of bed to walk around, but I was too weak, vomiting, and almost fainted every time I sat up.  That evening, I started itching like crazy- another reaction to pain medication.  On top of that, the pain from the C-section was intense as well.

Without going into all the other details, my recovery from the C-section was very long.  After twelve weeks post-partum, I was still sore and having pain occasionally.  I had a sixteen week maternity leave, and it killed me that most of my leave was spent recovering from the C-section.

After having such a negative experience from the surgery, I decided with our next baby, I was going to have a vaginal birth, or VBAC for short.  I started researching everything I could about VBAC’s, and found out that in most cases, VBAC’s are very safe for the majority of women.  I was troubled to learn though, that the majority of hospitals and doctors don’t “allow” VBAC’s, because of the small chance of uterine rupture.

What never was said though, that just being pregnant again increases the chances for uterine rupture after a C-section, because of the baby growing and stretching the uterus.  However, the chances  for uterine rupture was 0.05% higher than having a repeat C-section.  I was still convinced I was going to have a VBAC.

We writers at Eco-Child’s Play are writing about our birth experiences this week. My son’s birth was a fairly traditional hospital birth. It wasn’t until…oh… about a week before my son was born that I started really getting into the natural movement…way to late to do anything but make minor changes to my birth plan. So, I’m going to write about a friend of mine’s “natural c-section.”

My friend, a yoga teacher, living a green and organic life in Northern California, was happy to find herself finally married and pregnant in her forties. Well educated and well informed she planned to have a home birth until she received the devastating news from her OB and another OB and a series of midwives – a prior episode with fibroids, involving surgery, prevented her from having a vaginal birth, let alone a home birth. A C-section would be required.

I felt it was important to write about her story because there are ways to make a hospital birth, even a C-section, if you or your OB feel it’s necessary, more “natural” and feel less like medical intervention.

We went to labor classes, and I was all excited. I could do this, no epidural, no drugs. I’d run a marathon, I have a high pain threshold. I was all set mentally for this approach.

As it turned out, labor itself was enough of a marathon. One month to be exact. Did you know you can be in early labor for a whole month? Real contractions, off and on, for weeks. I knew that by the time my water broke, it would be go time.

Which turned out to be 1 a.m. on a Monday morning. The doctor on call was not worried, he did not know I had been through early labor already. We packed up and went to the hospital.

I refused the epidural initially, the contractions got stronger. I allowed them to “knock the edge off” with the epidural at seven. “Keep it light,” I said. Pretty soon it was time to push. And I pushed, and pushed. And pushed. Two hours of pushing. I watched the little one’s heart rate drop with every push. Something was not right. My pubic bone slanted inward, there was no way I could give birth naturally.

They cranked on the epidural and a c-section followed. My doctor offered to try natural birth — with forceps and risks. “Get the baby out, c-section, now!” I said. I had seen enough of her struggles on the heart rate monitor.