Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.
Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj
My name is Allie. This is my story of a failed VBA2C.
I spent my entire pregnancy finding a hospital and doctor that would allow me to attempt a VBA2C. I had realistic expectations but I did have high hopes of a successful VBAC. I found a great doctor who has had a lot of successful VBACs. The clinic she works at had a difficult time getting me on her weekly schedule so they started scheduling me with her co-worker. He was open to VBAC but I could tell from the way he approached our visits that he wasn’t a advocate like my other doctor was.
I went all the way to 40 weeks and wasn’t dilated or effaced. On my due date my water broke at 11pm. I went to the hospital a couple of hours later. I was only 1cm dilated. They decided to induce me with a IV drip and also a catheter in my cervix. The resident doctor was not either doctor I was seeing my entire pregnancy and definitely not a big advocate on VBAC.
They asked me to go ahead and get a epidural so if I needed a c-section they would already have a catheter in me to get the medicine in me faster. Within 20 mins of getting the epidural my babies heart rate dropped and they couldn’t get it back up. They immediately brought me into the OR for an emergency c-section.
My baby was born perfectly healthy and crying. My BP bottomed out and I had to stay in recovery for a couple of hours. We were fine with in a couple of hours. I am very upset about my experience and have learned I need a more knowledgeable person such as a doula with me if I decide to do any more pregnancies to help me stand up for my right and to have the knowledge needed to help me make decisions.
Even though I spent my entire pregnancy learning about my rights and about VBAC, I still felt pressured and also overwhelmed with the whole procedure. I have also learned no matter how much your OB/GYN is an advocate that you should make sure the hospital is also advocate for VBAC and the residents who will be doing the delivery are also advocates. Overall I am very disappointed with my emergency c-section after planning my entire pregnancy for a VBA2C.
