VBAC ArticlesTo help you better prepare for birth
10 tips to help you think through your VBAC preparation •Create Your Own Birth Statement: Writing down your values, preferences, and goals can help you clarify your own thinking and feelings. Moreover, this effort will make you better prepared to discuss these issues with your partner and your caregivers. • Find a Doctor or Midwife With Low Rates of Intervention: Some caregivers have much lower rates of intervention than others. Although there are many exceptions, family physicians tend to have lower rates than obstetricians, and midwives generally have the lowest rates of all. Styles of practice can also vary a lot within each of these groups. There is often striking variation even when the women being cared for are at similar risk. Asses also if their values and beliefs about VBAC are similar to yours. • Discuss Your Goals and Preferences with your Caregivers: Find out how they will work with you to meet your goals and preferences. If their response does not satisfy you and you have other options, seek a better match. • Choose a Birth Setting with Low Overall Rates of Interventions: Some hospitals have far lower rates of intervention than others, so do your homework. In general the rates of intervention are much lower for out-of-hospital birth centers and at home births. • Arrange for Continuous Labor Support from Someone with Experience: Arrange for someone other than your partner to provide continuous labour support. You can work with a trained labour support companion (doula), independent midwife or invite a woman friend or family member to be with you. If you decide to invite a friend or relative, try to choose someone experienced and comfortable with birth. Care that “mothers the mother” considerably lowers your risk for cesarean section and assisted vaginal birth. Having such a person with you can also help your partner by sharing the work and seeing that your partner’s needs are also met. • Explore Your Options for Pain Relief: Avoiding epidural analgesia can increase your chances for a spontaneous vaginal birth. If you wish to do this, it would be wise to consider your options and make arrangements for other ways of coping with labour pain well before labor. Many women find that tubs, showers, large inflatable “birth balls” and other measures are quite helpful for comfort during labour. Doulas can offer many “comfort measures.” Be sure to learn about the wide variety of comfort measures and other strategies that can help you effectively cope with labour pain. • Work with Your Caregivers to Delay Going to the Hospital: If you are having a hospital birth, wait until you are in “active labor.” If you arrive too soon, check to see if you can go home and return later. • Work With Your Caregiver to use Intermittent Fetal Monitoring: Continuous electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) increases your risk for both cesarean section and assisted vaginal birth. With some types of interventions, such as epidural analgesia, you may be required to use EFM. Talk with your caregiver and check hospital policies to find out whether they will listen to your baby’s heart rate with a hand-held device or occasional use of EFM instead of continuous EFM. •Practice, Making an Informed Decision: If in doubt check - BRAIN: Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition and Not now. •Live your life practicing the skills you believe are important to good birthing and parenting: Birth is after all a day in your life. What you do now affects you later so why not live now the way you want to be later. By becoming more conscious of your reactive patterns of thinking and behaving that do not serve your purpose, you will be more able to actively make changes for the better. [top] VBAC exercise - coaching tool using the GROW model VBAC exercise – GROW: Goals, Reality, Options, Way forward. Goal What is my birth philosophy? How do I want this birth to be different or better? Why do I want to have it this way? Reality What skills and strengths do I already posses? What choices have I already made? What support is already available to me? What are the key influences I am facing regarding my VBAC success? - Science: Evidence based information - Nature: The natural birth process - Culture: Our care providers, places of birth and peoples view of birth and pain - Experience: Debriefing from prior birth issues and life experiences Options What skills and strengths do I need to develop in order to increase my internal options? What challenges or fear need further support and exploration? What are my birth options in my community? Way forward What will I gain from working towards the birth I want? What steps am I going to take to maximize the potential of achieving this birth? Is there anything stopping me from going forward and what am I going to do about it? [top] VBAC utube clip - Our journey to homebirth after 3 caesareans Have a look at this inspiring utube clip of an incredible womans journey to a vaginal birth at home after 3 prior caesareans [top] |