Planned C-section turned unplanned HBA3C (home-birth after 3 Cesareans)

How’s that for a story? Oh, and it happened only about an hour away from where I live! Here’s the article, from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. She was supposed to show up for her fourth C-section on Dec. 6. Instead, she started having contractions on Friday the 13th. (Actually, she says in retrospect, she had started labor in the night, but they were so mild, she didn’t recognize them as true contractions.) Then her water broke, and in a couple of minutes, the baby came out, “caught” by her two-year-old son! [The three-year-old was a little freaked out. {Shrug}]

One odd thing, is that she related that the contractions for this labor were not as strong as those with her other children… but if they were all born by C-section, I’m wondering why. I can see her having a normal labor for the first one (most likely induced and/or augmented with Pitocin), and ending in an unplanned C-section. And I can see them allowing her to attempt a VBAC with the second, but usually not with the third — although it’s possible she showed up in labor and was given a C-section. Oh, the details these stories written for the general public leave out!

Another woman proves her body works, and her vagina is actually useful in birth. 🙂

h/t Birth Activist

She did it! — What a birth story!

You’ve got to read Heather’s birth story, on The Unnecesarean. Wow.

“A decision made out of fear is no decision at all”

I recently received the following comment, in response to a past post about multiple Cesareans. It provided much food for thought, so I wanted to share it so all my readers could see it.

I really appreciate this site and its boldness for spreading truth.

I have had 6 unnecessary c-sections. They have all been low-transverse and healed well. My first was due to malposition which could have easily been changed if I would have been “allowed” to move. I was dilated and effaced completely with no induction. My 2nd c-section was due to the nurse “accidentally” rupturing my membranes when I was only dilated to 7 and the baby not coming right away. How stupid of me to allow them to cut me again and not just wait. I had this baby over four years after my first. There was no reason at all to operate. My doctor was distressed!

My 3rd c-section was about 2 years later and was elective due to scare tactics. With my fourth pregnancy I was much more educated in the field of child birth and VBAC and was completely prepared to have this baby naturally. Everything went great until I went to the hospital. I was treated like a criminal preparing to commit murder. I dilated to 10 on my own, but was still harassed and harassed until finally forced to have a c-section. During this operation my fascia was not put back together and I had a bulge the size of a small water balloon below my navel. I still suffer from this operation that was performed over 8 years ago. My 5th c-section was performed after finding a doctor who I felt supported me. I dilated again to 10. The baby was even descending into the birth canal. I had a nurse that was extremely nervous and told me I was taking too great of a risk. She frightened the dr and he demanded that I have another c-section. During this c-section the doctor nicked the main artery that connects my left fallopian tube to my uterus. I almost died from blood loss in this operation. I needed at least 2 or more transfusions and I had to spend the entire night in the ICU without my baby boy. It was horrible!!! That was considered the “safe” option….a c-section! My 6th c-section was in April 07. It was planned and I had a wonderful birthing experience. The doctor treated me human and cared very much for me. He told me that my uterus looked great and I was ready for baby #7. He knew we wanted a big family. That was in Germany.

So, here I am now…I am in TN. I am almost 30 weeks pregnant and still have not even seen a OBGYN. This is the first time I feel very frightened about the medical system. I have been in contact with a Dr. via phone and email. She is a Dr/Midwife and we are seriously considering a Home birth. This is where I am now thanks to the abuse I have received in the hospitals. I am a woman wanting to have a baby. I want to be treated like a human not like an atomic bomb waiting to go off. I have read and read and read both sides…I know the risks. I am concerned about the safe delivery of my baby. But I have been frightened away from medical staff…There is so much more to my story. But, it would be too long to write here. I have been abused emotionally and physically. I feel I have been violated and have lost my body to a system…an evil system that believes that having a baby is a medical condition. Having a baby is not a medical condition. It is a normal, natural, God-given process that man has perverted and taken control over. Allow woman to just have their baby in a peaceful and safe environment. Leave us alone! If there is an emergency, we are thankful to have the medical staff…but until then, please let us be and let us give birth! The doctor does not need an enema every time he has to use the rest room and women do not need any interventions or inductions to have their babies!!!!!

Sincerely,

A woman who just wants to give birth not have an operation,
Angela
PS. A decision made out of fear is no decision at all!!!!!

Empowering Birth Stories

Rixa at Stand and Deliver is sponsoring a giveaway for the new book by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, Your Best Birth; and one of the ways to enter is to tell or link to a story of empowering birth (also “what I wish I had known before” and “tips for creating a better birth experience). So, if you are in the mood for reading empowering birth stories, head on over and read your heart out!

Educated Birth

This is a video which was made for the Birth Matters Virginia Contest. It’s not my video, but I liked it. (I’m sure there are many other videos made for this contest, so you can probably do a YouTube tag search and find them. If I have time, I’ll try to remember to do this myself.) Because it’s in the contest, please make sure to rate it!

Thanks to Diana for the link!

Collection of C-section videos

Most of these videos do not include footage of a C-section birth itself, but rather the aftermath some women find themselves in after an unwanted and unnecessary Cesarean. I’ve seen some of these and will watch the rest — I recognize the first one as one of my favorites: “Question CPD”, and many of the others look familiar. The bottom two videos do say that they are part 1 and part 2 of an actual C-section procedure. I’ve seen one 60-minute long video of a live C-section — it used to be on YouTube, but it’s gone now — that was aired as a hospital promo or something. If I find it again, I’ll link to it, because people want to see a real C-section (maybe because they like blood? maybe just to see what they themselves went through? for a school project?), and it is an interesting and informative video, even if I don’t agree with everything the people say throughout that video.

This isn’t some sort of “Mommy War” pitting women who give birth vaginally against women who don’t; just allowing women who feel violated by their C-sections to have a voice. Not every C-section is unwanted; not every C-section is unnecessary; but far too many are, and far too many women feel traumatized or victimized by the surgery that brought their children into the world. If you’re comfortable with your C-section — GREAT! I’m so glad you were able to give birth in a way that you wanted, and/or perhaps even saved your life or that of your baby! But so many women do not have those feelings about their C-section, and I’m not going to ignore them just because other women are fine. Some people are just far more sanguine about things in life than others — some are positive thinkers who look for the silver lining in even the darkest clouds; others are negative thinkers like Eeyore and say, “Well, I never hoped for anything good, because I didn’t figure I’d get it anyway.” As long as they’re fine and dandy, I’m glad. But when there are women who are plunged into depression and anger and fear because of their C-sections — and especially when they find out that they were completely unnecessary, or could have been avoided — I cannot remain silent.

My thanks to Unnecessarean for the link.

What a difference the care provider makes!

One of my “blog buddies” just had her second baby by C-section. She believes her first was an unnecessarian (or, at least, that it could have been avoided had her care been different leading up to the Cesarean), so she opted for an HBAC, and ultimately went to the hospital for a repeat C-section (after days of labor and hours of pushing). I’m linking to this post (warning — has profanity!), because she contrasts her experience of being an attempted HBAC transfer to the hospital, with that of a friend of hers. She had a pretty good experience — the nurses were nice, the doctor was nice; but her friend had a horrible experience — was demeaned, threatened, etc., for having attempted an HBAC. Same hospital; different doctors, different nurses. Astounding.