THANK YOU to this sweet family for sharing their story We are so thrilled to have this amazing documentation of your VBAC! If you are VBAC hopeful or even VBAC curious and would like to join us for our VBAC Prep workshop we have two coming up: April 11th and June 13th.

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to have an unmedicated birth. My mom is a Lamaze instructor and doula so I grew up listening to her classes and knowing that birth was a natural and beautiful part of life.

Fast forward to 2017… After two miscarriages, we were finally pregnant with our rainbow baby. I had been getting care from an OB practice, but wanted a change. At 20 weeks, we switched to the Minnesota Birth Center, hoping for an out-of-hospital birth and excited to have care that did not see pregnancy as a ‘medical condition’. We took the birthED Lamaze class and asked my mom to be our doula. My water broke on a Sunday afternoon, and we were SO excited! Close to midnight, we headed to the birth center – we were convinced I was in active labor, but I was only at 1 cm!! My labor progressed veeery slowly, even when I felt I went through transition like 3 times (we later learned that baby was in a less-than-optimal-position). After more than 24 hours of contractions, it was finally time to push. I pushed for more than 2 hours at the birth center with no progress, so our midwives recommended we transfer to the hospital. At the hospital, I got an epidural and pitocin, pushed for 2 more hours and finally baby’s heart was not taking it well anymore, so we had an unplanned c-section. I remember being so exhausted that I could barely open my eyes to meet our beautiful baby boy.

Recovery was slow and I questioned myself so many times… why did my body not do what it was supposed to? Did I not try hard enough? I knew right then and there that I wanted to try for a VBAC with our next baby.

Then 2020 arrived and we were pregnant again. Best news of the year! I immediately started looking for VBAC resources. We decided we wanted an in-hospital delivery with the Minnesota Birth Center (MBC) midwives. There was a lot of uncertainty as the pregnancy progressed – hospitals were not allowing doulas and the midwives stopped catching babies at the hospital. However, everything started falling into place a few weeks before my guess date – I would deliver at the hospital with MBC and my mom would be our professional doula.

In preparation, my husband and I took the birthED VBAC class. It was not only informative but also very healing – I was able to talk about my previous birth and let go of many fears and concerns.

We felt very prepared. In a conversation with our doula/mom, we decided we would prepare for labor like I would prepare for a race in terms of rest, nutrition, hydration, etc (we run a triathlon every year).

During my 3rd trimester, I had been having lots of discomfort in my hips and I was seeing a physical therapist and chiropractor weekly. My husband was wonderful and helped me do Spinning Babies exercises every day to get baby into good position. I was so uncomfortable that I was convinced I would not make it to 38 weeks. I had been having intense Braxton hicks for weeks.

At 39 weeks, I visited my PT on Monday and the chiro on Wednesday. That evening I was feeling AMAZING! I remember being able to go up and down the stairs with no pain whatsoever – I even thought, “Wow! This week’s sessions really helped!” I went to sleep and woke up at 3:00AM with moderately intense contractions every 12 min that would not go away. I told my husband and he suggested I go back to sleep – I also had false labor twice the previous week so he probably was not convinced that it was real labor. I knew that if this was indeed real labor then I would need my strength later, so I took a sleep aide and went back to bed.

5:00AM: I texted my mom that she should be ready to go. By 6 am I could not go back to sleep anymore so I went to the kitchen and had my usual pre-race breakfast: banana and hazelnut spread sandwich. Contractions were every 5-7 min at this point and getting closer and more intense as time went by. My husband got our son ready for daycare and we took our last picture as a family of 3. We explained to our son that most likely baby would be born that day and that his grandparents would take care of him until we got back from the hospital. I took a shower to help me relax.

8:00AM: My husband dropped our son at daycare, and I talked to my mom on the phone and asked her to come over. I think everyone thought our labor would be faster than last time, but having had a roughly 30 hour labor before, my husband and my mom thought we had plenty time. We had talked about laboring at home as much as possible. I was french braiding my hair very tightly between contractions (my usual hairdo for a race) while my husband organized some boxes we had in the entryway. I remember telling him, “What are you doing honey? You need to take a shower and we need to go!” I think at this point my face was showing the intensity and he realized this was really it, so he quickly got ready while my mom fed me some cut up fruit and I talked to my midwife, Toni, on the phone (who would be meeting us at the hospital.) My contractions were more intense, and I was on hands and knees on the bed to help manage.

10:00AM we headed to the hospital. I had my pillow to squeeze during contractions because it was a 30-min drive, so I knew I had to manage the intensity as best as I could. The drive seemed shorter than I remembered and I was thankful we were not in the middle of a snowstorm! We talked to Toni as we were parking, and headed to Labor and Delivery, stopping in the hallway every few steps for contractions. After signing a few forms, we were directed to the triage room where the nurses took my vitals (I remember thinking… where is Toni?! I need to see her to know everything is ok!). Toni came in and checked me… I faintly heard I was at 5 (I was honestly just glad I was not at 1 haha!). Contractions at this point were getting quite intense and I noticed that I was grunting – Liz’s dramatization during our class of the transition into pushing stage popped into my head.

11:30AM We got moved into the birthing room and I sat on the birthing ball for a couple contractions, but I noticed myself pushing! Toni guided me to change positions and I pushed on hands and knees on the bed. I was mouth-breathing so much that my face mask was damp and I asked my husband to remove it because I could not breathe well anymore. Toni was helping me direct the pushing to the right spot while my husband put cold towels on my forehead and encouraged me to drink between contractions. I felt like I was not making much progress and I was starting to feel afraid that this birth would also end up in a c-section. Toni guided me to change positions multiple times to help the baby along, but I felt that nothing was happening. My hips started to get achy and relaxing was very tough. I even thought for a moment that maybe I should ask for a c-section. Everyone was telling me to relax my hips, but doing it felt like fingernails on a chalkboard. My husband and my mom kept saying ‘listen to Toni’ and my husband mirrored the breathing and vocalization – I later thought how strong he was not to faint through so much mouth breathing. I knew I had been pushing for a while and I was worried my time was going to be up. At some point, I told my husband ‘I am afraid’. Finally, Toni looked into my eyes and said, “You are holding your baby in, you need to help baby, you need to relax your hips.” I felt like Tony really understood where my mind was at, so against the reflexes of my body I just let go and pushed with all my strength. I could hear my husband, my mom, Toni, and the L&D nurses just screaming with joy “yes, yes, you are doing it!: and ‘we can see the hair’.

1:00PM Their voices got louder with each push and finally I felt like something fell into place and baby moved. I pushed 1 or 2 more times and they told me to reach to feel the head. It was the last little encouragement I needed to assure me that baby was really coming. After 90 min of pushing, one more contraction and baby was out. Every time I remember this moment, I hear triumphant music in my head. Just after 1 pm, our baby was here. Dad announced that it was a girl and they placed her on my chest. I think I was in shock for a few minutes while they cleaned her because I could not even speak. Finally, it all hit me, and I started crying with joy. I could not believe we had done it. Here she was – bright eyed and looking straight at me. I kissed my husband and we kissed our baby. I am still in awe that we had a perfectly healthy little girl through the unmedicated VBAC that I wanted so much. It was the most empowering experience of my life. I am so grateful to have had the support of my husband, my mom, the MBC midwives, the hospital L&D staff, and the guidance of Liz at birthED through the journey. We completed the race, with a smile on our faces.

birthED VBAC Story - Completing the Race