Joah’s Birth Story
My journey towards a Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC)
Upon revelation that I was pregnant with my second child, I was determined to have a vaginal birth. First order of business was to search for a doctor who performs vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC). To my surprise, there were only a handful of doctors performing this “risk” in South Florida. After some research on potential candidates I committed to my new OB. There were several steps to begin the process but that’s for another blog.
Fast forward to labor day, I was at home when my contractions started. This time I was mentally prepared to labor at home as much as I could. Unlike my previous pregnancy I began to experience heavy bleeding. This alarmed us so we quickly phoned our OB. As J spoke to her, she requested we go to the hospital since she couldn’t diagnose the heavy bleeding over the phone.
When we arrived to the hospital the nurses checked me; 4cm dilated! Things seemed better than last time already. I was told the bleeding was caused by the release of my mucus plug. Once transferred into my labor room we were more adamant on our demands to create the atmosphere we planned for. This time around we didn’t notify any family or friends because we wanted to do things totally different, uninterrupted and unmedicated.
Transitioning from the early phase of labor to active phase went seemingly smooth. I managed to properly breathe through each contraction. As the contractions began to get closer in time, the nurses asked that I stay off my feet in preparation for the transitional phase of labor.
Nurses checked me periodically to see if there had been an increase of dilation. For the record, for those who don’t know, I HATE being checked! It interrupts my thought process and intensifies the contractions. After hours had passed I dilated to 6 centimeters. At this moment I felt a shift in my thoughts as flash backs of my first labor began creeping in.
This broken train of thought sent me into panic mode. I could no longer focus on the labor pains. I kept gazing into the clock on the wall replaying pregnancy number one. To suspend the the coming 18 hour labor repeat, I screamed “GIVE ME THE EPIDURAL!!”. I was given an ultimatum; epidural for a repeat c-section or continue unmedicated for a chance at a vbac. Tearfully I murmured the former.
The medical staff informed everyone to prepare for surgery. My OB called the Surgeon down to the operating room. I began crying while watching J gear up in the surgical attire they provided him. I softly apologized to him for not being strong enough to follow through with our plan. He stopped me and reassured me that I was strong and I was doing what I felt was best for me and the baby. He continued his attempt to uplift my spirits as we shared a few jokes about the whole process.
While laughing I felt a sudden need to push. I looked to J and told him what I was feeling. J terrified told me to wait since no one was in the room. We paged the nurse. She began persuading me to allow another check to see if the baby was crowning. My initial reaction was No! Then a sudden hopefulness took over and allowed me to reverse my decision. To GOD be the glory, the baby was crowing. My OB rushed in, canceled the surgeon, and prepared me to push. I don’t know if it was the flood of joy that took over the moment as I do not recall any pain while pushing. A swift 30 minutes had gone by and our beautiful baby was born.
During the whole pregnancy I decided not to be informed of the sex of the baby, until birth. However, J wanted no parts of that ordeal so he discovered the sex early on and promised to keep it a secret. To my surprise I gave birth to my first son. The sweetest part of it all was the ability to hold my newborn as J was able to wrap his arms around me.
