Monday, July 26, 2010 at 4:10PM
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Reader Comments (28)
We should have a Delurking Day soon, huh?
This is semi-interesting. Last week before everyone starting linking to the OBG Management editorial about VBAC, their Alexa ranking was about 3.2 million. I have one of those distracting toolbar that shows rankings. I noticed today that their rank was up to 2.4 million. We collectively linked the crap out of it.
How about this? http://www.cardozolawandgender.com/uploads/2/7/7/6/2776881/16-3_manista.pdf A delightful summary of the legal and constitutional issues surrounding VBAC Bans? So very nice to see it all in one place, cited and summarized :-)
So I was wondering how people who have had vbacs deal with the pain of them. I never had pain with my regular labors! I was so uncomforable with my last VBAC that I didnt make it.
I dont want that this time. This is my last baby. Any ideas of suggestions?
Great, now I'm totally craving avocado :-) I'm so thankful for all the information here. I'm currently listening to my cousin's 2 week old baby girl ask for some mom milk. She would most likely arrived here via c-section without the information that I passed along from all you wonderful people. My cousin naturally birthed an almost 9 pound baby girl in a hospital attended by a midwife after almost 4 hours of pushing. They are both troopers. I also am so thankful because they were able to attend a family reunion shortly after her birth (which will most likely be my grandfather's last). So thanks, and where can I get some avocado at this time of night :-).
I am oogling my 2 week old still trying to process my VBAC attempt gone awry. I had a uterine rupture along with a bladder rupture. I just don't believe I am that less than 1%. A total "why me???" time in my life...........
Waiting on a client to go into labor. She's scheduled for a c-section on August 11th due to footling breech twins. She's past 37 weeks so she's hoping labor will start soon so she can just things over with. Also have a vbac client due soon. So happy to see the new recommendations that came out last week and can't wait to talk about them at our local ICAN meeting on Thursday evening.
Gretchen,
I'd imagine the pain of a vbac would be the same as the pain of any vaginal labor (which of course varies) but I've not had a vbac so it's just my thought. I think education on different coping techniques (I personally loved Bradley, and my instructor incorporated some other techniques such as Hypnobirthing) can really prepare you for the pain of labor. Going in blind is what makes it hard, as does pitocin. There are all sorts of physical tools you can use -- birthing balls, birthing stools, tubs, hot showers knotted sheets/towels. The list for coping with the pain of labor are endless. Just make sure you know that pain is different than suffering -- it'll be uncomfortable and hurt, but you shouldn't be in constant pain the whole time.
Jessica --
That's so sad, I'm sorry for you.
I hope you don't mind me asking but I'm curious as to if you were given pit, an epidural and if you were encouraged to urinate often during labor?
A book that really helped me cope with my labor was Birthing From Within. It has some great activities in it. :)
Oh shoot, I totally messed up names.
I think my post was supposed to be toward Samantha and Heatherly. Sorry :(
I got to hold a 6 week old baby this week - my boss's daughter's little guy. She's bf'ing him like a champ. I haven't held a baby that small in ages and ages. Zomg ovary spasms!
I'm reading Laboring On in between readings for my class and enjoying it very much so far.
Hope everyone has a fab week!
I have a niece who is due any week now, who wants the baby OUT, OMG, as soon as possible, give me MEDS, etc. So...I don't say much. Pretty good chance she'll end up c/sec like her mom (3x) and her sister (3x). She let me know in no uncertain terms not to mention that "midwife crap." So...whatever.
Aaaand...the lady sitting next to me at work is due w/ her first in Nov, when my son was born. And somehow I ended up in charge of the baby shower. But, she's more open and wants to bfeed, birth as naturally as possible, etc., so I just gave her a few books, links to local birth ed people, and left it at that. She may slip through with a natural birth, she may not. Who knows. I am not her mom/sister/best friend, and it's not my job to tell her what to do w/ her body.
It is all making me feel a little crazy, though--I'm ready for there to be no other people's births around me for a while.
I talked to a woman today who was telling me about how her first birth, how she had shoulder dystocia and it was because her pelvis just wasn't big enough. I said, "Well, were you pushing on your back?" And she said, "Well, yeah.." like doing something different had never occurred to her. She's 9 wks with her 2nd and I so wanted to say, "Please let me give you some good information so your next birth doesn't suck!" but what I ended up saying was this:
"You know, whoever told you your hips are not big enough lied to you. The bones in your pelvis separate during birth." It just popped out before I thought about my wording,
I know we're not supposed to make women feel bad about their births, but I totally hate that women get fed these lies and half-truths and they never learn anything better. And they confuse the pain of childbirth with the pain and suffering caused by unnecessary interventions, and they think the whole package they got was necessary when in fact, most of their pain and inconvenience was to make someone else's day more convenient, :(
Heatherly, I hope you are okay. We're here if you want to (and are able to) write about your experience. That must have been terrifying. I hope you know that there isn't anything you could have done differently that would have prevented it.
Jill
Moved. Out of the place where I spent most of my pregnancy and all of my post-partum crap. I feel like a new woman.
And, I could really use a good avacado recipe.
Dana... congrats on your fresh start. It's nice when a move is worth the temporary annoyance of packing.
I LOOOOOOOOOOVE Avocados! I eat them by the half, with a little salt :)
Also, I have to say that my 4 month old is freaking adorable, and has started to immitate certain sounds/words that I say all the time. Most often she says "Hi" although I really dont think she understands what she is saying yet, she just knows that's what I say to her every time she wakes up. She recently started going to a new in home day-care and seems to be loving it. She likes the attention she gets all day I guess. I am still breastfeeding as much as I can, but it has been really hard the last 2 months or so to pump enough for her to eat while I am away for my 10 hour shift (which ends up being more like 12 hours with the drive and a lunch). So we have been suplementing with formula, which I hated at first but am now getting used to. I still make sure that at least 80% of what she eats comes from me, but the extra calories from the formula have helped her to bulk up and keeps her full (if anyone has suggestions about increasing my milk supply I would love the input- although I feel like I have tried everything already). She is one of the happiest babies I have ever known, always smiling and laughing and babbling. She almost never cries unless she needs something or is in pain. I think she is starting to cut her first tooth, but even that doesnt seem to faze her most of the time. She is a joy!
On a sadder note, a good friend of mine from work lost her long battle with cancer yesterday. She was in her 70's and we knew it was going to happen but it is still so strange being at work and knowing she will never be coming back. She was such a fighter and a really generous woman. I feel a little out of sorts today, but I dont know if it will really sink in until the funeral. She had more gumption than anyone I have ever met, she will certainly be missed.
Hugs, Heatherly....
LilRed-- kellymom.com has a page on increasing supply. Good luck! Also, I'm sorry about your friend.
Dana, enjoy your new home. I heart avocados, too. My mom slices them thin and perfect (no clue how she does this), squeeze of lemon and some S&P... perfect. And of course, guacamole. Now I want some and it isn't even 7 am here.
I love these threads because it helps to know that I'm not the only one who obsesses about other people's births and while we should be rejoicing in the miracle of birth and all of that crap, I just end up feeling so sad about it all.
My friend ended up with her unnecesarean this past weekend, which I'd been reluctantly predicting all along. I also gave some books and they even took a class w/ my doula. At least she wasn't induced, but appears to be the typical cascade o' joy. And they were told-- new hospital record! cord was wrapped around neck 4x! so they have a very dramatic story to tell. I was like WHY THE HELL is cord/neck a crisis in the hospital and just variation of normal for midwives?! WHY WHY WHY. And thankfully over at Birth Sense, she'd just done two whole posts about it. But not sure if it makes me feel better or worse. Sometimes it sucks to be right. So I'm happy for them and all, but just cannot shake these feeling of sadness.
So what do I do? Why, go over to Mamapundit and read until I'm bawling.
I want to become a doula but I worry about the emotional work and filters involved. I need to talk to more doulas about how they do this. There is a training here in Oct w/ Debra Pascali-Bonaro that I really want to do. I need to see her film still, too.
On the lighter side, my baby is turning 3 and he is baseball obsessed. I'm having fun putting this party theme together. He is going to plotz himself.
Off to do some yoga for the first time in.... months! My hamstrings are going to hate me.
I just wanted to say that I gave birth for the first time last Thursday evening (July 22nd) to a wonderful 7lb 2oz baby boy named Weston. My labor and delivery was not what "ideally" I wanted, but I am happy with the decisions and changes we made along the way. Thank you ladies for doing what you do here. I've learned so much from reading.
My friend at work just had her baby- by c-section. I am just so saddened by it because for MONTHS we talked about normal birth and all of the things that she could do to have a healthy labor and birth. I did get the idea that she wasn't as "into it" as I was...but I just hoped that labor would go so fast that she couldn't be coerced into a c-section. It didn't. Her water broke and she went into the hospital. She wasn't really contracting, probably because her BODY KNEW that her baby wasn't in a good position. Instead of waiting for labor to really begin they hooked her up to pitocin and accelerated labor which basically pushed the baby down and he really got stuck. He was tolerating labor well, though, but instead of waiting or trying something different they did a c-section at, you guessed it- 4:30 pm. Right before dinnertime. She had only been there 8 hours....The poor baby's head was awfully molded on one side, but instead of realizing that his position was bad she is convinced that he couldn't get through her pelvis..."bangs head on desk". There is NOTHING WRONG with her pelvis!!!
Her husband is kind of traumatized by it- he said that they weren't having another baby. He told me that I "might not be so lucky" with labor next time. Ummm....yeah. All that time that I spent at the gym and all of the research and the hours that I spent determining her position in utero...that was "luck". Actually I remember it as hard work. I didn't say anything to him, though, because I know he is just disappointed.
I know I know I know that sometimes c-sections are warranted, but this really didn't seem to be one of those times. I wish she had more support during labor- I know she could have had her 7 lb 11 oz baby vaginally.
Congratulations, Katelyn!! And thanks. :)