Birth stories - VBAC after traumatic birth

Birth stories - VBAC after traumatic birth ^Featured

For Surita Carstens (28) the birth of her son, Mertiens, was extremely traumatic.

However, her experience was the complete opposite when she gave birth to her second child, a baby girl.

“With Mertiens we planned a natural with a gynaecologist in a hospital, but it ended in a horrible unplanned C-section,” tells Surita. It started with her water breaking and being rushed to the hospital. She was bound to her hospital bed for a whole night without contractions until 06:00 the following morning. A forced induction was performed and after five hours of labour the mother-to-be, terrified at this point, was rushed in theatre for an emergency C-section due to failure to progress. For Surita, nothing was positive about this experience and she knew she would never have a C-section again unless necessary.

Another Pink Foot

“When Mertiens was 21 months old I told my husband, JP one night when he got home that i really wanted to get pregnant. It was a Saturday evening. I knew i had the perfect cycle and was ovulating the Monday. We started trying and when I tested 10 days later, we had the BFP in front of us! We were pregnant and on our way to having our next baby,” recalls Surita.

Learning about VBAC

Surita was unaware of VBAC’s.She just assumed that she could have a natural birth again but when she started talking to people, she was told differently. “On a Facebook-forum I met a lady, now my friend, who had three natural births after a C-section. Then I started researching VBAC’s. I learned about water, home and midwife births. Things I thought were old aged were now coming back.”

Knowing what she wants

Surita’s dreams were focused on a home birth after reading several home birth stories . “I was so scared of another medicalised birth with a doctor in a hospital environment. We started researching home birthing with a midwife.”

The Search

However, in the small town where they lived no doctors supported them in a homebirth and no midwife would assist them without a doctor’s approval. Also, there were no midwives in their town. “I emailed many midwives, spoke to many doctors and I wasn’t even pregnant yet.” Finally they found a midwife able to assist them, but she was out of their price range as she did not use medical aids. They continued their search. “After months of searching our general practitioner told us he would help so we settled for him. We trusted him and thought he would be a great choice. However, it would have to be at his offices one block from our home and it was okay with us.” But their journey wasn’t over. Their GP told them he couldn’t assist anymore and the couple had to find another doctor.

Feeling Defeated

“Finally, at eight weeks pregnant, we found a gynaecologist in another town who was reputed for doing natural births and the secretary told me he would allow a VBAC. I made an appointment, but he could only see me at 15 week which was okay with me as I have learned from my research to not have a lot of scans early in a pregnancy.” During their appointment, the doctor wanted to know how Surita’s son was born and she mentioned her emergency C-section. He suggested another caesarian. “When I told him that I wanted a VBAC, he immediately got upset and started on how dangerous it is. I told him I had the facts and even got out my research and handed it to him. He said we’ll talk about it later. Next he wanted to do an internal examination which I also refused. It lead to another fight because, according to him, we needed to do internal scans with every visit to ensure that the baby’s healthy. I refused. “ The doctor continued to do a normal scan but said he was unable to tell the sex of the baby, look for any birth defects and only gave the approximate weight at that stage. He didn’t check the lenght of the femur, head curcumfence of anything else. “After the scan I brought up the VBAC again. He said that he will do an internal check at 36 weeks and then decide if he’ll allow a VBAC. If not, he’ll perform a C-section between 37 and 38 weeks.” Again Surita and her doctor had words as she refused to have an early C-section, wanting to go into labour naturally. But the doctor was equally stubborn and told her to come back in three weeks so that he can do an internal scan to look for defects. She left feeling sad and beaten. “After two years of waiting, everything was falling apart. Finances didn’t allow for me to have a homebirth with a midwife and doctors refused to help.” Thus commenced another two weeks of phone calls, trying to find a doctor willing to help and fighting with the medical aid.

Miracle!

“JP and I drew a bank statement of our savings,” tells Surita. They were rejoiced to find that it was quite a large amount. “When talking on a Facebook-group a midwife mentioned that if I was able to come to the city where my parents live, she could assist me with the birth and a payment plan over six months!” They started making sums, but couldn’t finalise anything until the end of November when Surita got her bonus so that they knew how much would be available. To her disappointment, it was smaller than expected, but they decided to for it anyway. “I also reallywanted a doula and have met one in October, but finances would not allow it. Then a Facebook-friend heard of my problem and being a doula herself agreed to help me for free. I was past happy!”

Planning

However, there were glitches: their midwife was two hours away and Surita would only be able to see her once a month at most and she needed someone closer to home for more visits, if an emergency should arise, she would need a doctor near their home and because of finances a home birth at her parents’ house were at of the question as they needed their medical aid to pay. She got their scheme’s promise to pay in writing and more budgeting and planning followed. It was clear she had to give birth at a hospital. “Or else they wouldn’t pay at all and after some more research we found out that due to my medical history with Myasthenia Gravis and epilepsy, I had to have a paediatrician on standby.”

Birth Companions

23 weeks into her pregnancy, the couple met their midwife for the first time. “I loved Heather from the very time I met her,” says Surita. “She had this way of making you feel confident in yourself and in her and also a softness and kindness, making me feel at home.” Surita only saw her again February and again in March and April. They met three times in April. Her due date according to ovulation and menstruation was in the middle of April, but by the 15th the baby was still not engaged, so they decided to wait. “I didn’t want any interventions, preferably not stretch and sweep and definitely no breaking of my water or induction. We decided to wait two weeks before doing anything. My doula, Anina, suggested that I start looking into using pressure points for induction and gave me a website to refer to.” That evening her husband started using them. But the days still passed without incident. “Every morning I would get Braxton hicks and every evening I would have prodromal labour, contractions being 10 to 12 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds from 18:00 until 21:00, but as soon as I hit the bed they would stop. So we waited.” Surita’s other birth companion was her best friend, Erika who came to visit her on the 17th of April.

Finally, it’s time

The prodromal labour was worse than before that day and Surita’s mother was getting worried, insisting that she was going into labour. Surita, however, didn’t get her hopes up. “After days of prodromal labour I was just not hoping anymore and thinking that my body was failing me.” During the night Mertiens woke her up to go to the bathroom and she wasn’t feeling well. At 04:15 she woke up again, her tummy aching and Surita thought she might have a runny stomach. When it hurt for the third time she saw it was 04:35 and she started timing. “At 05:35 I woke JP and told him that I think I was in labour.” The contractions were every seven minutes lasting 30 to 40 seconds while she was resting, but they decided to rest some more. They stayed in bed until 06:10 and the contractions were now five minutes apart. They sought advice from Heather who told them to wait until the contractions were regular at four to five minutes apart lasting over one minute. They got back into bed. Later that day, Surita and her husband went for a walk, but her contractions had lessened to every 10 to 12 minutes and were very shirt. At 11:15 her contractions were back. Anina suggested that Surita took a bath. As she got in, her contractions immediately increased and her husband got worried, but as she got out to eat something, her labour slowed down again. By 14:45 she told her husband that they had to leave as something felt different and she knew it wasn’t long now.

The Hospital

At the hospital they took a walk in the parking lot and Anina encouraged her to sway her hips during contractions as it would put pressure on different of her back on help with pain. They went back inside and Anina said that Surita and her husband must listen to some music and dance to get the oxytocin flowing. She also suggested a bath again. Heather arrived and did a Doppler check. The baby’s heart rate was fine. After the bath they went for a walk again. “Every time the contractions hit I would sway and bend my legs pushing down, breathing through them and concentrating on the baby coming down. In between I would do stretches to bring the baby down into the birthing canal.” When they re-entered the birthing rooms Surita was tired. Heather wanted to do an internal, something Surita feared. “After my son’s birth I was scared of internals and of what they would tell us. I was afraid that I wasn’t dilating enough and would have to go for a C-section.” After another contraction, Heather performed the internal and found that Surita had dilated almost nine centimetres. “I burst into tears. After the long road, I was birthing my baby,” she tells. When she got to the bed something felt different and her contractions were longer and more painful. Heather applied pressure on her rectum pushing upwards and at the same time pressing her back down and then her water broke. Surita got back into the bath and sat hunkered forward on her knees, but it caused a problem. Seeing as she was so far dilated and her water was broken, the baby’s head was pushing down and Surita wanted to push. “But I wasn’t fully dilated yet and was hurting myself. My husband and Heather both asked me to stop pushing but I couldn’t. My contractions weren’t even a minute apart and they hurt!” She was instructed to lean back against the bath tub and the urge disappeared along with some of the pain. A while later Heather said that the baby’s head was moving down into the birthing canal and told Surita to push. The whole time JP encouraged her. The baby started crowning and Surita recalls the pain. “I instinctively wanted to close my legs and shut out the pain, but then I couldn’t push,” she says and her husband held her legs open. Heather guided her hand to feel the baby’s head, but every time she crowned, her head would go back in and Surita was forced to push her out once more. Heather suggested that Surita kept on pushing between contractions instead of relaxing. “Again she guided my hand down and I could feel her entire head now and my perineum stretched over it and I pushed, but she didn’t want to come out. I really didn’t want to tear or need to be cut, so I started praying and in between talking to her, encouraging her to come out.”

Against all odds

The next moment, Surita felt her baby’s head pop out. With her next contraction the entire body just slipped out and Heather lifted her onto her mother’s chest, covering her with a towel. “I was in ecstasy. I had done it, I had gotten my VBAC. When every doctor, every person I spoke to had told me I couldn’t with my history. I had proven them wrong. My baby was there and I had birthed her myself!” tells Surita, still overjoyed. She got to breastfeed her immediately and the family was able to see the newborn only moments later. “I only had three very tiny tears on the inside of my vaginal wall and no tears on my perineum. It was the most amazing and empowering feeling ever!” - Staff writer

Baby’s weight: Mertiens 2.74 kg @ 39.3 weeks and Sanmarie 3.3 kg @ 40.3 weeks

Books read: With son’s birth, none as she is a qualified paramedic believing in natural birth and didn’t feel research necessary as she believed in her doctor. With her daughter she researched for two and a half years about anything and everything birth related.

Birth stories - VBAC after traumatic birth Featured

Sign in to your account

Birth stories - VBAC after traumatic birth ^Featured