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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I had a VBAC. I did some prep - stayed in reasonable shape, acupuncture to encourage labor, and went to a birthing class. I also had a doula.

I kind of agree with both posters that you have to believe you can do it, but also, that’s not all there is to it (obviously). I think you do have to go in REALLY believing in yourself, because childbirth is painful and hard. You’ve got to go in feeling strong and confident and determined. Because it’s probably all going to go upside down when the pain really hits, so you’ve got to set yourself up as best you can before that.

Anyway, I did most of the things you’re supposed to, and in the end, what was going to happen happened.

The two things that probably made most of the difference was my L&D nurse who was amazing and having a supportive doctor who was ok with labor (including pushing) taking much longer than most doctors would have been (according to my doula). He did say that we’d need to go to a c-section if things didn’t progress in the next hour (I was pushing at that point), [b]but my response was “oh hell no,  I did not go through all this to end up with a c-section[/b].” Obviously if the baby was in distress or whatever, I would have felt differently or the doctor would have insisted - I’m not saying you should ignore valid medical advice or that you can just will things to work out. But when things get hard, you’ve got to be able to say to yourself “I can do this, let’s keep going.”

Fwiw, while labor really, really sucks, for me, the recovery was SO much better that I’d do a vbac over a c-section in a heartbeat. My c-section recovery was by the book, but it’s just a long and painful recovery, even then. I know it’s different for every woman and there are no guarantees with whatever you do, but I’m just sharing my experience.

Good luck, OP [/quote]

Op here - thank you for this! I have a frw questions - when that final hour came up and you were like “hell no!” did you start to do anything differently or shift your focus etc? Also, how long did your doctor allow you to labor for after water breaking? Did you get an epidural?

I have been doing acupuncture, staying reasonably active, have a doula, took an out of hospital birthing class (wow it is so much more informative than the hospital ones!) and switched to an obgyn who is known for being supportive of vbac’s so lots of similarities in prep!
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