I needed a rest from the whole situation over the past week or so, instead I got to attend 3 lovely births.
I’ve had these pictures for a while and the woman would like me to share until she can get her mammoth birth story written. Not because this labour was long but the story of getting to this birth spans over 10 years and 3 ceasarian sections, the first one a classical incision.
We are hoping when her story is finished that for women like her googling the internet that it will be possible for her stories to explain to women what is possible. As we know that the more surgery you have the more the risks, it is important for women to know they have other options.
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An older lady on an email list I'm on had a Classical incision, and later had at least one VBAC that was induced, yet she didn't rupture. "More likely" does not mean "definite," despite how some people practice.
-Kathy
beautiful
thanks for posting this. We need more vbac (especially after multiple Cs and classical and T sections) available to the world.
Great pictures, and such an encouraging story! Thanks for posting!
Oh the look on R's face holding her babe is so beautiful!
Well done to her and you for supporting her!
congratulations to you strong mumma.
so wonderful to see such joy.
Another baby enters the world and it's just a birth. How lovely for this mama and her family. *cheers*
Whilst it's lovely that this woman got to do what she wanted, I would really like to know two things. Firstly whether she and her family understood that if she had a uterine rupture at home she (and her baby) would probably not have survived? As you know, uterine blood flow at term is 500-750ml/min – so it doesn't take very long to become profoundly shocked, although I will grant that blood loss will not continue at that rate given the absence of autoregulation, so once a woman with a ruptured uterus has lost 30-40% of her blood volume then loss should slow down (of course this would only take ~4-5min, by which time she is already in stage III hypovolaemic shock with hypoperfusion and potential hypoxia for the baby, her brain, her kidneys and her heart).
Secondly – if uterine ruptured (or amniotic fluid embolism even) had occured – what was your management plan? How were you going to prevent her and her baby from dying?
Please show me your stats to back up your tiny risk. Of course she knew the risks and she knew that she was far more likely to suffer complications from more surgery. Now THIS has been researched and proven.
Please let me know where the paper that says an amniotic fluid embolism is more likely in birth after a section than in any other birth.
If she suffered an embolism at the hospital could you tell me the management plan to prevent her or her baby from dying? In Adelaide over the past few years there has been one maternal death from embolism and the woman was having a ceasarian section and NOT a normal birth.
Scare mongering and uneducted bullshit is something that woman are starting to see through.
There are many risks to birth and woman are not stupid.
In How many of the thousands of babies that died last year after unnecessary intervention was the woman informed that there were risks to medical practice? Homebirth women are the most informed and educated women in the country. They have to be because of the constant witch hunt.
Do me a favour and undertake more research on the actual figures before only explaining the catastrophes.
Well Put Lisa!
Hi
this is just such a gorgeous birth
I know the mum in question & I know how much this meant to her & I know that she knew ALL of the risks involved exactly.The overmedicalisation of birth within our hospital system & the misinformation given by medicos & all other protocols that make no sense try to scare women so that we remain within their enviroment & midwives are kept to the role of the good nurse-Highly political
women die in hospital too,as do babies far more frequently and far too often due to hospital error.
Good on my friend,her partner & her family for being brave ,strong and believing that a woman's body & the miracle of birth goes beyond the legal political expectations & limitations of our health system & good on Lisa for being there,& facilitating this for such a lovely person!
The risk of amniotic fluid embolism is remote, however the risk of uterine rupture is significant,given the number of caesareans and the fact that one was a classical especially when you consider in the home birth setting the likely outcome is death of the mother, or baby or both. This risk is significantly higher than the risk of caesarean section. You may have adequately explained the risk to this woman, however women reading this blog are led to believe that this is very safe which is a misrepresentation. Doctors in the public system try to avoid caesarean sections and all women that have had only one LSCS are offered a VBAC but at the end of the day the aim of birth is a healthy mother and baby.
The rate of death from section is 1 in 2500 this goes up after each section although the normal birth risk is the same and not getting increasing. If the aim of birth is a healthy mother and baby maybe the risk of a major operation should be taken more seriously. death from vag birth 1 in 10,000 from section 1 2500.
Lying and saying the likely hood of a death by homebirthing is the sort of fear mongering used by Obs to get what they want. The risk of being sued removed.
The truth, even saying we don’t know the real risk here but we are doing our best to look after you would be preferable to . You re baby and you are likely to die if you have a normal birth after these sections.
Saving women from themselves is a load of bull shit.
"Doctors in the public system try to avoid caesarean sections and all women that have had only one LSCS are offered a VBAC"
I'd love your references to support such bullsh*t claims. Are you f***ing kidding me???
As a victim of two unneccesary cs's and vba2cer I find your comments to be completly ridiculous and false. Care to share how many birthing experiences you have? How many cs experiences you've had?
Anonymous/Suz, whoever you are you sound like an upstart med student who just had a lecture about shock and wanted to show how good your regurgitation skills are.
Do us all a favour a F*** OFF!!!
Hi, this looks like a great birth. I’m very interested in reading the whole story if it’s available.
I don’t think she’s finished the whole journey yet. You could always get in touch with me though.
Lisa
I have had 3 c-sections. My last was a classical without informed consent. While trying to birth my baby in a hospital who was supposedly a VBAC friendly hospital, I was physically and emotionally abused. They sent “Risk-management” in more than once to continuously “inform me of the risk” and that “at any time my uterus could rupture and one or both of us could die.” I call this harassment.
The doctor refused to give me an epidural because he was afraid that if I ruptured I wouldn’t know. Um, I think I’d know!
They held me down by force to insert an internal monitor on my baby’s head while I was screaming for them to get the H E double hockey sticks off me! By then the baby was distressed and I could visibly see that his heart rate was going down and going back up. I was frantic and agreed to the C-section. When they were off getting everything ready, the heart rate went back to normal. When they came in to get me I called the section off and they blantantly told me, “If you don’t do the section now, we will not orientate the staff or the Operating Room to do the section later.” I was horrifed and worried that they wouldn’t care for me in case I ruptured.
I agreed to the section and while in the Operating Room the doctor told me to lie down. I was breathing through a contraction, as the anesthesia had not taken full affect yet, and he ran from across the OR, placed his hands on my shoulders and slammed me into the Operating table.
While in surgery, I asked why I felt the surgery being done up so high? I had had 2 previous lower transverse C-sections and remembered the pressures and where they were. The anesthesiologist told me, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, everything is normal.” I assumed that they were repeating the same cut as the prior two (lower transverse). When my mom was finally able to see the surgical site, she gasped and I knew something was wrong. She asked the nurse, “Why is her cut up and down like that?” The nurse replied, “We did that so she can never attempt a VBAC again.”
Now, people, tell me why women are starting to birth at home? Why they don’t trust the hospitals or the doctors in them? My son was born pink and healthy with apgar scores of 9 and 10 at 10 pounds 11.6 ounces and 23″ long. The doctors knew he would be big and knew that I had had 2 previous C-sections. They were trying to prevent something from happening rather than treating something that had happened, which resulted in an ugly scar that ended up infected. I was sent home with my staples and stitches removed and to heal from the inside out while caring for a 2 and 3 year old plus my newborn. I had to set aside time to care for my wound more differently than a normal c-section, plus wait for a visiting nurse to arrive at my home to make sure I wasn’t blood poisoned from the terrible infection they gave me.
They didn’t have to do a classical. Do the research. Research says they do it if there is problem, especially with premature or especially small babies. I suppose a nearly 11 pound baby is sufficiently sized for a lower transverse section? Wouldn’t we all agree? And sometime if they can’t get a baby out they will start with the lower transverse and extend it to a classical. They never touched my lower transverse scar. And yet they were so worried it had ruptured. If it had ruptured, don’t you think it would need suturing? They never looked. When I asked the nurses if I could speak to the doctor several times, he never came in. I asked the nurses if they would ask the doctor why he did the classical. They only told me, “It was the doctor’s preference.” OOOOOHHHH that made me furious. You don’t even know.
I am now on the search for a midwife who will assist me in a home birth after 2 lower transverse and 1 classic c-section. I am literally terrified and repulsed at thinking of having another baby in a hospital or by c-section without reasonable cause. My 3 c-sections were done in 2 different hospitals in 2 different states. They are all the same ladies and when you find one that’s different, they are very few and far between. RARE.
I hope people have learned something from my story. I know I did.
my first 4 children were born naturally, though they were all induced early, but the damage to my neither region got progressivley worse from the epeziotomy with bub number one, to the point where it didnt heal completley, so my doctor offered me a cessar with my 5th, 6th and 7th children, which i agreed to as i believed the pain would be less then the stitches and problem healing below, sadley i was very wrong, my first cessar was ok, everything seemed ok with a little infection, but the following two cessars were excruciating, in the third the pain was so bad that i went into convulsions and my blood pressure went threw the roof, i was so scared, i am now pregnant with our 8th precious child, and i want to do it at home naturally, im a little scared but i believe that it will be a lot safer and a lot less painful then attempting another cessar, sadley i can say that doctors dont all encourage natural births, infact some will happily give you a cessar or in my case 3, it has taken me 9 months to feel recovered from my last cessar, they have been very hard when caring for a young family, i guess my only question now is,are there any midwives in the coffs harbour area that will deliver vb after 3 cessars at home?
I hope you find a midwife, or fly to adelaide and have a home from home birth.