What I did to have “the impossible” VBAC

Natural birth after c-section delivery

On July 31, 2023, after a healthy pregnancy with no complications, I had to have an emergency c-section after a 30 hour labour attempting a home-birth. The OBGYN saved my child’s life where the home-birth midwives would have caused the unthinkable.

When I got pregnant again, I was told by three different doctors that I had no choice but to schedule another c-section. My case was too high risk with the pregnancies being so close together. There was a significant chance for uterine rupture and death if I attempted a natural birth and exposed by uterus to natural contractions.

But on November 18, 2024, I gave birth to my second baby. It was a natural, unmedicated birth...in a hospital. The opposite of what home-birth advocates had fear-mongered to me about which had pushed me to attempt a home-birth in my first pregnancy.

In fact, everything about my hospital experience during pregnancy and childbirth was the opposite of what the home-birth advocates had told me. My contractions began and ended within an hour and the most “pain relief” I had was a Tylenol a few hours later.

So how did it happen?

There are a few reasons. I don’t presume to have all the answers but I feel it necessary to share my story for the women who might be in a similar position.