I am always so happy to get a client story into my inbox and the generosity of clients to allow me to share their stories is something I am grateful for. This family had a previous caesarean birth and were planning a VBAC but wanted to know all their options. They were fabulous to work with and I think their story speaks for itself.

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Hi Niamh,

I said I would drop you a quick message to share that we welcomed our second baby girl on 18th April. Baby girl arrived via planned caesarean section, weighing 6lb 15oz. She is a delight and absolutely thriving. We've been exclusively breastfeeding from birth and she is already up to 7lb 5oz.

After taking your VBAC class, we prepared a plan that we were happy with, which was that we would wait as long as we were comfortable for spontaneous labour and if that didn't happen we would opt for a planned section. After my previous experience, I really didn't feel comfortable accepting the increased risks of ending in an emergency section that come with induction of labour, or artificial membrane rupture.

My consultant was very supportive of this plan and all staying healthy and well was happy to let us go to 42 weeks with the plan to ask us to come for extra monitoring if we wished to wait longer than that.

Around 38 weeks I started to experience a lot of stop/start labour. I would periodically begin to have contractions that would build in strength and stay in a steady pattern for hours (1 contraction lasting about 60 sec every 5-7 minutes). However, they would keep going away. I even lost my mucus plug around 39.5 weeks. I figured this was all my body preparing and getting ready for labour. The stop/starts continued for 3 more weeks. At the same time, baby's growth had slowed down from about 34 weeks, to the point where by 39 weeks she had stopped growing entirely. My consultant was happy to keep monitoring since I had lots of fetal movement, blood flow in/out of placenta looked good and there was no other real cause for concern.

By the time I got to my 41 week check, I had stopped feeling comfortable leaving baby in there and asked if we could opt for the planned section. The entire experience was so positive and such a better delivery than my first.

Although I didn't end up with a VBAC, I am still so grateful for the class we did with you. The information you provided us with really helped us to decide what the right path forward for our family would be. The tips you gave for labour as well really helped me cope mentally and emotionally with the constant stop/starts. I felt safe enough to recognize them as false starts and stay home where they had the best chance to progress. And rather than start beating myself up or feeling down, I was able to just trust my body was doing it's job and whatever would happen, would happen. Rather than pinning all my hopes on one particular outcome, your course helped me to decide what was really important to me in a birthing experience and gave me the information to weigh up the benefits and risks day to day to make the best decision for me and my family.

I would definitely recommend anyone considering VBAC as an option to take a course with you. Even though it's not how our delivery ended up going, the tools and information helped us so much to make the experience extremely positive.

Thank you so, so much. 

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Wow, I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. What an amazing story of confidence, resilience and informed decision making. I was also very impressed by the support from the medical care provider which unfortunately can often be lacking. It just goes to show what the right information and support can do for a family. Well done again to this fabulous family and congratulations on the birth of your baby girl.