My decision to have a vaginal birth after a caesarean (a VBAC) was easy, as I had previously experienced both a vaginal birth and a caesarean. I’d had the caesarean with my second bub eight years prior to falling pregnant with baby number three, but hadn’t forgotten the discomfort afterwards.
And off we goI wanted to go into labour naturally. At 39 weeks, my obstetrician and I agreed to some gentle stimulation in the form of a ‘stretch and sweep’. Before the procedure, the doctor told my husband, Damian, and I that I was already 2cm dilated. Having only ever been induced, my first thought was, ‘Yay, I’m going into labour soon!’ Apparently, this is not the case! The doctor said I could go into active labour that day, the next day or even the next week.
A few mornings later I started to feel pains. I woke Damian and told him, but said I didn’t think it was labour because the pains were in the wrong place. Thank goodness he decided we were going to the hospital anyway. By the time we arrived, the pains had become intense.
Welcome, baby!We were shown to our room and we settled in to wait for a midwife to come and examine me. When she did, I was 5cm dilated. I was (very) keen for an epidural, so the arrangements were made. The epidural didn’t take all the feeling away, but it definitely masked the pain. From there, it only took a couple of hours of labour before our son Ethan was born. He was 3.6kg and 52cm long.
Ethan spent his first two hours screaming, but eventually settled and started to feed and sleep well. A few hours later, I was up and around. I felt like everything was fine, so I asked if I could take Ethan home. Being my third baby, the doctor agreed and by dinnertime we were back with the family at home. Had I had a caesarean, I would have been in hospital for up to five days.
In my experience, a caesarean is a much easier way of giving birth, but you pay for it in recovery time.A vaginal birth may be a bit more uncomfortable, and you need to let go of a little dignity, but within hours you are able to walk around with your baby or jump into a shower without drips and drains.
More birth stories:
0 Comments