Autumn’s HBAC Birth Story
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 […]
VBAC After Cesarean for Arrest of Descent or CPD
VBAC after Cesarean for Arrest of Descent or Cephalo-Pelvic Disproportion – written by Pamela Vireday A cesarean for “Arrest of Descent” means a cesarean done after a woman has dilated fully and pushed for a while without the baby descending. The amount of pushing time required for the diagnosis varies from source to source […]
Birth Story: Elisabeth’s VBA2C
Originally published 2012 On the day of my 2nd cesarean section (C/S) I was nervous, anxious and just wanting to get it all over with. I had asked my OB about the possibility of a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). She said she was supportive but also told me of her colleague she had just […]
Birth Story: Shara’s VBA2C
Originally published 2012; View Shara’s birth video here My first two labors began with natural birthing dreams, each lasted 24 hours long and for different reasons (neither were medical emergencies) ended in the birth of our boys via c-section surgeries. After my second c-section, I had a very difficult time finding peace and healing from […]
Birth Story: Anne’s VBA2C
Originally published in 2012; link to Amazon Smile that donates a portion of proceeds to ICAN For those who don’t know where it all began, I’ll start with my first pregnancy. August 2008 – I got pregnant with my DD and worked with the Midwife Center to attempt a natural delivery. The entire pregnancy was […]
Birth Story: Maria’s VBA2C
Originally published in 2012 Like all VBAC stories, mine starts with the birth of my first child. My oldest was breech from 19 weeks on to the end – the girl would not budge. We were in the midst of trying everything under the sun to flip her around and look for an OB who […]
Birth Story: Heather’s VBA2C
Heather’s VBA2C Birth Story (photo provided by Heather) Birth story and photos shared by Heather M.; originally posted in 2014 During my last few prenatal visits, my provider had been getting more and more negative about my vba2c [vaginal birth after 2 cesareans]. I would hear comments like, “Oh, you are not dilated at all […]
ICAN Addresses ACOG Practice Bulletin 184: Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Delivery
We, the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN), would like to address the recent publication of Practice Bulletin 184 from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), titled: “Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Delivery”. ICAN is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve maternal-child health by reducing preventable cesareans through education, supporting cesarean recovery, and […]
Giving Birth After A Cesarean: It’s Your Decision
Care providers have an obligation to share information with you about your care. To present the risks and benefits of planning a VBAC or choosing a routine repeat cesarean. When you have received all the information you need to feel confident to make a decision, the choice is yours. No provider should frighten or coerce […]
Is your care provider VBAC-friendly? Here’s how to tell.
With the rate of cesarean births in the United States holding at a little over one in three, many women face an important decision when having subsequent children: plan a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) or schedule a repeat C-section? Since 2010, the guidelines issued by the American Congress of Ob/Gyns (ACOG) assert that a VBAC is […]
CAPS for VBACS
In 2014, I was led down a path that I later learned often resulted in a C-Section. I knew I wanted to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean before I even knew what a VBAC was. Not even a couple months postpartum, I searched to learn what my options were for my future births. […]
Should a Woman’s Ethnicity Decrease Her Access to Birth Mode Options?
If you have ever wondered what the leadership of your local ICAN chapter does, the following is a good example of our work to promote ICAN’s mission of improving maternal-child health by reducing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Recently, in September 2016, an […]
