Vbac that did go wrong!

[blackduckies]

Thanks so much for your story, it is important to hear about the other side and what can go wrong!!!Mainly it's stats you hear about and people tend to think that they won't be the one. It is an extremely tough decision to make VBAC or C-section, when as a woman I tend to feel a bit of a failure if I can't deliver naturally, but as my OB wife said (also a midwife) people tend to forget that naturallly woman died and babies died in childbirth and still do!!!!
I would love to attempt VBAC after 2 C-sections and one natural delivery, but am finding myslef with reservations after reading your story as OB wife said to me generally women don't get pregnant to birth their baby, they get pregnant because they want a baby. I have to agree I would never forgive myslef if I left hospital with out my baby, a damaged baby or myself damaged when it could have been avoided, I could leave hospital without beating myslef up over a C-section.
Thanks again for your story, I have around 8 weeks of thinking left and will be doing lots of it.

Just a little footnote, my OB would prefer I have a CS but if everything looks good beforehand and with full monitering, no induction or epidural and a labour that that's less than 8 hours is prepared to let me try. I find it a bit alarming that a lot of girls have talked about being induced after already having had a c-section and being allowed to labour for long periods of time. How does that happen????

[csab]

NIkki - I am so very sorry for your loss of your beautiful little princess. I am also so thankful to you for telling us on BB about your story. You may not know it but you are helping many women in this high risk category make a decision on how to birth their baby. I have had 2 c/s's already and will be having my 3rd come October. My first c/s was an emergency one after having to Natural births, yet after pushing for several hours from 4cm dialated and only making it to 8cm only to start closing, as well as my DD's heart fluctuating really high one minue to really low the next, having 2 stress tests done indicating baby was stressed, I was then rushed for the c/s. Even then they could not tell me for sure if my DD would be ok. Thankfully she was. As my labours are long anyway, have not had a short one yet, my next DD who was born 13mths to the day after DD1 the next c/s was done. I was so nervous of going thru labour after having my 1st c/s, and did not want to put another child thru what my DD1 went thru. Now I am expecting another DD, I have been thinking of seeing if the DR's would let me go into labour myself before having a c/s booked (still have the c/s tho), but have also been in the mind frame of I am not sure on how my baby girl would cope as I do not really know how healthy she really is, as they have had concerns about her thru out this pgcy, which was making me undecided about going into labour myself. So as the most important thing to me and always will be to me and always has been to me is the health of my baby when she is born etc, I feel as tho you have helped me in my decision about going into labour on my own. I am going to let them book my c/s as I did with DD2 and if it happens that I go into labour earlier as I did with DD2, they will just do the emergency c/s as they did with DD2.
Again I am so sorry for all you have been thru, and also so very glad you have your DS's. I truly wish nothing but the best for you and your family, you have been thru so much.
As for what your DH had said to you on waking from your c/s, that is a fear of mine. I am so sorry you ever had to hear those words. ( I dont find it morbid at all)
Thankyou once again for your story, I really appreciate it.

[nikkialma]

Hi, Thanks for your reply I am so pleased that reading about what happened to us has helped you think about your dessicion. It can be so hard to decide what to do, I know that the one thing you just would not want todo is walk out of that hospital with empty arms!!!
Once again take care and do not worry about deciding what to do you have obviously been looking into vbac. I guess our problem was that we trusted what the doctors told us.
Thanks again
Nikki

[plc1805]

Nikki - thank you for your story. I have just come across it and read the thread and appreciate what you have posted here. I am in the position of deciding whether to have another c-s or try for a natural birth. I just needed someone to tell me how things can go bad with a VBAC birth so that my DH & I can make an informed decision. Thankyou very much. I am so sorry for your loss and don't know that I would have been as brave as you honey to go back again and have another but I'm so glad that you did for your sake. Thank you again.

[jessica]

I am so sorry for your loss.
Thank you for sharing your experience as a way to inform others of what can and does happen. .
So any advice would be greatly appreciated & thank you once again for sharing your sad sad story.

[sunshine_sieben]

Jessica, the chance of a uterine rupture in a VBaC is not 1%. It is 1.6 in every 1000 VBaCs (0.16%). Some studies show the rupture risk as high as 0.5% - 1%. However, those statistics include induced and spontaneous labours. If no medications are used (especially no prostaglandins), the rupture rate is a lot lower.
Interestingly, the uterine rupture rate of a repeat C/S is 0.2%. The uterus can rupture before labour even starts.
Your risk of dying during an elective repeat ceasarean section: 0.0184% = 18.4 in 100 000 elective csecs
Your risk of dying from a rupture of the uterus is: 0.0095% = 9.5 in 100 000 VBAC deliveries

And about the likelihood of your baby being over 4kg: I'm not sure where the problem is. 4kg is not that much above average. Actually, most babies I know of who have been born lately around me have been around the 4 kg mark. My grandmother had 6 babies at home, all weighing over 5kg. Now we're talking big babies.

I don't mean to play down your concerns. Only you can know what you want to do. But it is important to look at things in the right perspective.
Obviously, what happened to Nikki and her angel is tragic. But if a baby dies during a normal vaginal delivery, we don't all decide that c/s is the way to go for all women from then on.
I'm just trying to say, yes, there is a real risk involved with a VBaC. But there is also a real risk involved with a repeat elective caesarean.

Saša

[christy]

Jessica, I would suggest getting some books and having a good read. "A Thinking Women's Guide to Better Birth" and "Silent Knife"

Both are all about statistics on birthing after a c/s and about what your body has done & is going to go through. Personally, after reading them, there was no way I could "Choose" another c/s. I suppose my first one was a very traumatic experience for me, so I couldn't put my body through that again. I was never going to have another child after my first experience because I was petrified.

I had an amazing birth (look on the main site for birth stories VBAC) but it was a mental challange prior to labour.

[nikkialma]

Hi Jessica,
Thank you for your reply, I totally understand your concerns. It's good that you are looking into vbac though, as I really did not do much in the way of investigations. I trusted what my OB told me and never expected anything other than a natural birth to happen. I don't know if anyone can tell you what way is best as we just never know what is going to happen. For some women birth is so easy, in my case it has never been easy. I have have 3 babies and ended up with a general and c-section will them all. At the end of the day you have to be happy with your dessicion not anyone elses.
One thing I will say is that with my last baby it was always going to be a c-section and even though I yet again I had serious complications I recovered so quickly. I feel having had c-sections, it was because I never laboured for hours prior to the c-section, I was not exhausted first. I would still love to have experienced a natural birth I guess it must be one of the most wonderful things, but more than that I would so dearly love to have our daughter at home with us.
I have found out things recently that probably should not have taken place for a vbac, like an epidural. But how were we to know that. Your husband must know this so listen to him and his experiences. Do not hesitate to contact me again I don't mind any questions.
Thanks again Nikki

[jessica]

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[jessica]

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[Trillian]

Jessica, Where exactly did you get your stats for uterine rupture from? Because they aren't right at all. The most recent study to come out of the US found that in 11,855 women who were available for the study, only 83 women (0.7%) had a uterine rupture - now that is far from being 1 in 100. What was the basis for those stats you had? Were they women who had had previous surgical births, inductions, other complications? It is all fine and dandy to research, but make sure that it is from a reputable and independent source and NOT from your OB would be a good place to start.

I do think that it is a terrible tradgedy when a women loses a child doing what she thought was the best and safest thing for that child, but I disagree with making a it a vendetta against VBAC and trying your best to discourage all women from having one. There is proven evidence that VBAC is safer than repeat surgical birth and it is up to the individual to choose if she wants to take that path after weighing up all the pros and cons for her personal situation. I don't think it is right to discourage someone from choosing a birth option based on their own terrible experience.

And there is no 'safe side' to a surgeons scalpel.

[Janie]

It is your choice if you want to risk a VBAC as it is my choice to be on the safe side.

I think that's a pretty unfair comment to make Jessica, maybe you could be a little more sensitive to those women, who after all, are just trying to do the best thing for their baby.

[jessica]

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[Trillian]

I do see the significance, but that shouldn't be used as a tool to deter women from wanting to have a VBAC when you take into account the history of the women as individuals. And no, I would not trust a knOb. They are trained to deal with birth when it goes wrong. They are biased by nature and have a vested interest in getting you to comply with what they want. There are precious few of them that see and therefore treat birth as the natural process that it is meant to be, not the medicalised fanfare that it has sadly now become. When you first approached your Ob about VBAC, what was the first thing out of his mouth? I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to him, but to also not take his word as gospel because the only best interest he has is his own.

[nikkialma]

Hi Jessica,
I have just been to one of my sons friends birthday parties and ran into someone I met 2 years ago. She had had a c-section with her first due to breech and was trying to decide wether to try vbac for her second. Her second did end up as a c-section but she now has had another baby which after 2 c-sections was easily born at home no problems at all. I was so proud of her, she said it was very scary but she has experienced a natural birth and said it was so fantastic.
Just so people know I did not write about myself to scare people, just to inform others of possible outcomes. I never expected it to happen to me but it did so I want my daughters life to be at least worth letting people know that things sometimes go wrong!!!
Nikki

[jessica]

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[Trillian]

My view on obs has come from seeing women on here and in real life get such a raw deal from those who supposedly have only their best interests at heart. I have seen family members go through surgical births for no other reason than because their Ob couldn't wait for them to go into labour on their own. I read womens stories and come close to shedding tears when I have read of their mistreatment by their obs. My frustration is palpable when I read that women so blindly opt for the most medicalised births simply because they are told it's the only way.

So no, I don't believe that I hold a generalised view of obs at all. Or maybe I have just become jaded after reading time and time again how women get such a raw deal.

Just wondering, if you don't trust any ob, who would you call if you were having a difficult natural labour & needed an emergency c/s or other intervention?

Ahhhh! but see? that's exactly when they are needed - when something goes wrong. I would not trust them to oversee my perfectly normal and un-exciting pregnancy and birth.

[Nai]

Just so people know I did not write about myself to scare people, just to inform others of possible outcomes. I never expected it to happen to me but it did so I want my daughters life to be at least worth letting people know that things sometimes go wrong!!!

Nikki, I am so sorry for what you went through but thank you so much for writing about your story. It has really helped me in talking to my Ob about my birthplan for #2.

My Ob has said that I have and 80% chance of a successful VBAC however we have agreed that we will not be using any pain relief - just hypnobirthing techniques - no induction and a portable heart monitor for the baby so that I can move around and even get into the bath. I will also have a doula in the room with me. I think understanding what could happen and what the main risk factors are has really helped me to feel comfortable with our decision and our Ob (I don't think all of them are evil )