Doula –
Born 21st January 2013
VBAC Story (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean)
After trying to have a natural home birth with my first child (Anouk), the birth resulted in needing to go to hospital to have an emergency caesarean as my labour was still ongoing after 4 days!!! I was physically, emotionally and spiritually drained and there was no way Anouk was going to be born naturally as she was stuck in my pelvis. After Anouk’s birth I had some fears and inner battles to deal with, even though Anouk was born absolutely perfect it still left me with the thought that I didn’t really give birth. I felt cheated as I had so many expectations and hopes of the birth that I wanted, and nothing really turned out how I thought it would, especially after all the preparation I had done into having a natural birth. When we found out I was pregnant with our second child it really brought up some of those same emotions and perhaps un- dealt with issues and it really trigged my desire again to want to experience the joy and amazing sense of achievement of having a natural birth. As I had a caesarean scar I knew that my labour would need to take place at the hospital as I would need to be monitored. Having all this in mind I knew that I needed to have an extra support person with us to help us achieve our desire for a natural birth. I have known Cherie for many years now and knew that I wanted her to be our Doula and support person at our birth. Cherie was fantastic all the way through my pregnancy and the birth. Cherie meet with us a few times in the lead up to the birth and each time she encouraged me and filled me with hope that I could do this and that my body was capable of having a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean). Cherie not only gave me very informative information in the form of books, DVDs, emails and hand outs but was also a great emotional and spiritual support and helped me overcome my issues and disappointments that resulted from my first birth. Cherie stressed the importance of dealing with these issues before going into my second birth as any fear or negativity could greatly affect my state of mind and could affect the outcome of the birth.
This birth started off the same as my first with my waters breaking slowly through out the day and having very irregular painful and not so painful contractions. After about 6 hours of this we called the hospital and they suggested we come into the hospital because my waters had started breaking they were concerned about an infection. Once we got to the hospital things slowed down a bit but it didn’t take long for my contractions to start coming back again. Our Doula arrived in the afternoon and she really brought a sense of peace and calm, the lights were dimmed and beautiful music filled the room and lovely calming aromas from the essential oils. Through each contraction I was encouraged and felt safe and supported, my labour was very long again (3 days this time) but my body gave me time to have a sleep and eat throughout and our baby was happy and content and in no hurry to arrive. In the extremely painful contractions Cherie was there with encouraging words, a heat pack on my back and a cold face washer for my forehead. My husband Adam was also taken care of with someone to chat too and offers to buy coffee and food as it was a very long labour!!! Over the three days Cherie was there (although we did send her home for a break) After 24 hours of active labour and only being 4cm dilated my body and my mind was starting to tire out, I was having to remind my self to stay positive and to focus on the job at hand. As the contractions started to intensify I felt I needed some help as I felt I just couldn’t keep going after all that time so I received an epidural. The epidural just really relaxed me and my body was able to recover to get me to where I needed to be to push. It wasn’t long until I felt immense pressure on my bowls and felt the need to push as this happened so fast I don’t think anyone believed me. I remember Cherie saying that if I felt like I needed to push then I should trust my body and push. I was pushing for 1 hour and a half (which felt like 10mins)when I heard the midwife and Cherie saying that they could see the head which gave me the confidence to keep going as I knew that I would see my baby soon!! After a few more BIG pushes I felt my baby rush out of me and into my arms, what an amazing feeling, it was so worth all the effort, I just couldn’t believe it, I DID IT, I achieved a VBAC!!! My Doula even filmed the experience so I can watch it again and again to remind myself that I did do it!!! Welcome to the world our beautiful baby girl Evie Harper 7lb 6oz Thanks Doula (Cherie) Couldn’t have done it as well without you!!
xx Claire