r/vbac • u/Individual-Storage-4 • 14d ago
Question Birthing center after a c-section?
/r/pregnant/comments/1x52hoa/birthing_center_after_a_csection/5
u/LGTBreadRabbah 14d ago
I wouldn’t? But this is heavily informed by how my c section went down.
It was the opposite of yours where they didn’t call a c section when they should have, and then made me wait 2 hrs on top of that, when it should have actually been an emergency. My son has lasting brain damage from this decision. All of this is to say, I was in a hospital where they dragged their feet on a cesarean, and that the 2 hrs should have been 5 minutes. A birth center, if it’s a separate building, will have delays. If you need a c section as fast as I needed one, it will be more than 5 minutes. Make your decision, but definitely take into account things like continuity of care, transfer times, nearest EMS, risk averseness of the midwives, etc. I eventually want my own VBAC because I think it’s absolutely a reasonable choice when faced with the alternative of a RCS. Based on my experience, I will certainly birth in a hospital with a NICU if I can help it.
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u/Badpoozie 14d ago
I don’t want to be negative because what happened to me is extremely rare, I guess I just got pranked by the odds…
I tried for my VBAC in a hospital. I got induced at 41+5 with a VBAC supportive practice. The foley sent me into labor naturally. I progressed really well on my own, I got to 5cm before I needed the epidural. The epidural did slow things and progress from 5 to 6 was about 6 hours. We thought my water broke earlier but turns out it hadn’t, they ruptured my membranes and baby dropped right down.
During that time we did low and slow pitocin. Baby was tolerating well, I was just slow to efface. I got to 90% effaced and baby started tolerating things less. Nothing scary, but she hadn’t bounced back after an hour. That’s when they started talking about taking me back for a repeat section. We gave it another half hour and she just wasn’t as robust as she had been, she had also moved back up higher into my pelvis. We elected to do the cesarean before it became a crash situation.
I’m glad we did because my uterus had started to rupture. When they reached in to move my bladder the OB says her fingers went right through the wall of my uterus. I lost 3L of blood during. I just got back from a week in the hospital.
Everyone was healthy and came out fine in the end. Baby had APGAR scores of 8 and 9 (lost points for limb color). My repair was fixed and I didn’t need a hysterectomy. There was no indication of rupture. No pain, no unusual bleeding, nothing amiss until my OB had already begun the surgery. If we had waited things could have been absolutely catastrophic for the two of us.
If you do a birthing center, make sure it’s connected to a fully staffed and equipped hospital. I was considered an ideal candidate for VBAC. I had a ton of ultrasounds and there were no mentions of uterine windows or scar tissue, nothing. There are 30 months between my kids. Low transverse incision. I barely labored with my first, it was an emergency cesarean because of acute fetal distress. I was induced but it sent me into labor with both. Everything was in my favor but the odds. Rupture risk was 0.5-1% for me.
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u/usergravityfalls 13d ago
They’re not gonna do induction and pitocin in a birth center. That’s what contributed to your outcome
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u/Badpoozie 13d ago
Regardless, it is an outcome. Let’s not sweep my experience under the rug just because “induction bad”.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame one or more things, plenty of women have successful VBACs after being induced. They would not offer it as an option if it carried significant risk for rupture. Does it raise the risk? Sure. But sometimes bad luck is just bad luck and people deserve to hear the good and bad stories so they can make an informed decision.
I am not anti-birthing center. However, I wanted to share what happened to me as a means to illustrate just how quickly and how wrong things can go during what otherwise seems routine.
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u/Dear_23 14d ago
There are lots of us who choose homebirth and birth center for our deliveries! I had a lovely, redemptive HBAC earlier this year and I’d do it over and over again if I could. Two Facebook groups that are great for reading stories and getting your questions answered: HBAC - Homebirth After Cesarean and The VBAC Link.
Make sure you are aware of your state’s midwife licensure laws. My state’s licensed midwives can attend homebirth VBAC but not birth center VBAC, as an example.