Episode 197 Jennifer's VBAC + Home Birth Transfer

The VBAC Link

“Your story is 50% yours and 50% your baby’s.”

After having a crash C-section under general anesthesia, Jennifer planned to have a peaceful and redemptive vaginal birth at home. Jennifer shares how she still found peace and redemption through her VBAC, even though things didn’t go exactly as planned.

If for some reason, your home or birth center birth is transferred to the hospital, know that it’s okay. Know that you didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing failed, the story is just changing. You’re turning the page and it’s going to a new place.

It’s okay to change!

Additional links

Jennifer’s Instagram and Photography Website

The VBAC Link Blog: Deciding Between HBAC and Hospital Birth

The VBAC Link Facebook Community

How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents

Full transcript

Note: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar, false starts, and filler words.

Meagan: Good morning, everybody. This is The VBAC Link and we are excited to bring you another VBAC story today. We have our friend, Jennifer, who is in California, and guess what? She is also a birth doula. I love when birth doulas share their stories because I feel like sometimes as birth doulas, while we are in labor, we forget all of the doula things. I always like to hear sometimes how we as birthing doulas will labor because for me, when I was in labor, there were some things that I knew I probably should have done but I wasn’t in that doula mindset. I couldn’t think, “Oh, I should do Rebozo apples right now.” And so I love hearing what doulas do and don’t do. I love that because it’s just a reminder that even we as doulas can benefit from having a doula in the room.

So I’m excited to hear your story, my love.

Review of the Week

But of course, we have a Review of the Week which is from RosiP87 and she says, “This podcast is empowering and healing.” she says, “The VBAC Link has been exactly what I needed but I didn’t know it. Listening to the podcast has been healing and helpful in processing my C-section after my first baby. Julie and Meagan are informative and engaging to listen to. I know that I will have a different birth experience with my second baby because of the information and confidence that I have gained through listening to this podcast. Thank you so much, ladies.”

Thank you, RosiP. That was back in March, so definitely write us when you have your baby and let us know how things went. Thank you so much for writing a review. If you haven’t written a review yet, we would love your review. You can head over to Apple Podcasts or Google Play. You can go over to Facebook. You can leave us an actual Google review on our website or if you would like, send us an email with the subject “Review.” We would love to add your review and possibly read it on the next podcast.

Jennifer’s Story

Meagan: Okay, Jennifer. We are going to turn the time over to you. We were just talking a little bit about you becoming a doula. I would love to hear why you became a doula, what inspired you, and maybe how being a doula helped you during your birth as well.

Jennifer: Hi, thank you for having me. I appreciate it so much.

Meagan: Yes, thank you for being with us.

Jennifer: You guys were a huge part of my journey through this, so I’m really excited to be here.

Meagan: I love that because we can’t physically be with everybody but I love that we can just be with people on their journey, even if it’s just a sliver. If it’s following our Instagram, following our blogs, or listening to the podcast, it just makes me feel so special. I feel like I have attended so many births through listening to all of these birth stories and then kind of being a doula on the side on this podcast.

Jennifer: Yes, absolutely. You guys have definitely helped thousands of women, I’m sure.

Meagan: Well, awesome. Well, share your stories with us.

Jennifer: Yeah, so I know you just asked how I became a doula and I’m still fairly new to it. I’m going slowly because I have two little kids.

Meagan: Yep, being a doula with children is hard.

Jennifer: It’s really hard. Yeah, it’s definitely tricky to navigate, but it’s so rewarding. I think even just doing a little bit here and there–

Meagan: Yep. One or two is so great, yeah.

Jennifer: Yeah and really, it was just my original C-section that inspired me to become a doula because I was always interested in birth, but after I went through a really scary situation that I wasn’t prepared for, I just wanted to make up for it by helping other women go through their journeys and hoping to help them avoid going through some of the more traumatic stuff if they’re educated and advocated for, and stuff like that.

Meagan: I love it. I love it, love it, love it. Well, welcome to your journey. I’m excited to see you grow.

Jennifer: Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m excited too.

Meagan: Do you have an Instagram for your doula work?

Jennifer: You know what? I don’t. I just use my personal one, but I’d be happy to give you that.

Meagan: Yeah, if you want anyone to go follow you, feel free to share it.

Jennifer: Yeah, I can just send it to you because my last name is kind of confusing.

Meagan: Perfect. Send it and we will add it to the show notes.

Jennifer: Perfect. Awesome, thank you.

Meagan: Okay. Well, feel free to share your stories. I’m so excited to hear them.

Jennifer: Sure. So I guess no VBAC is a VBAC without a C-section, so that’s where I’ll start. I was 24 when I had my first baby. I had always wanted to become a mom. I was always super interested in birth even when I was a teenager. I’d always watch all of the birth stories and all of that stuff on TV and all of the things that make birth sound really scary. I was still interested in it.

I guess I’ll just jump right in. I was 40 weeks exactly on the dot. I was laying in bed at night and I was feeling super uncomfortable. I got up to go pee and my water broke. I had taken a Bradley class and I was just preparing to labor at home for as long as I could, but I was confused when my water broke because, in Bradley, they would teach, “10% of people have their water break first. It’s probably not going to happen to you. Here’s what to do if it doesn’t, basically.”

So when my water broke, I woke up my husband and I was like, “Dude. My water broke. I think we should just go to the hospital. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” And he was like, “I don’t know. Are you sure?” So I called them and they said, “Well, we have to tell you to come in,” and I was like, “Okay, I guess I’ll go in then.”

So I took a shower and went in. I got there and I was 1 centimeter dilated, of course. I was having contractions and everything. I kind of expected to be barely dilated, but I just–

Meagan: That’s where I was, too.

Jennifer: Your water broke first?

Meagan: My water broke, and then I walked in there and they were like, “You’re maybe a 1.”

Jennifer: It’s like, “Oh my god.” Hearing that is just like, “Okay, we have a long road ahead of us.”

Meagan: Uh-huh.

Jennifer: Yeah, but they said, “We’re going to keep you because your water broke,” and blah blah blah blah, all the things they normally tell you. So we were in triage for a couple of hours and then they got me a room. That’s when the contractions really started kicking in. I was planning an unmedicated birth, but I was pretty surprised from the get-go how intense it was. My husband was just rubbing my back and everything. I was doing fine. I was just leaning forward through all of the contractions and breathing.

I think around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., we called our parents and they came. It just started getting so intense at that point and I just wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was for the sensations. My mom and my husband were rubbing my back and everything was just getting so intense so fast, on top of each other. They checked me and I was 4 centimeters. I was just like, “Oh my god, dude. What? How?”

I kept going, though. I labored for, I don’t know, maybe another four hours. They checked me again and I was at a 6. At that point, I was just like, “I can’t do this anymore. If this is going to get more painful, I can’t do it.” I asked them for something at that point, but not for an epidural. I did not want to get an epidural, so they were like, “Okay, well let’s try the laughing gas.”

I tried that and I don’t know about anyone else, but I could not keep that thing on my face at all. I just couldn’t.

Meagan: I had it too and I was like, “I need something to hold it for me,” because while holding it, too, I would get kind of like, not sleepy-sleepy, but drowsy.

Jennifer: Yes. Like, out of it.

Meagan: Out of it a little bit. I couldn’t apply the pressure that I needed for it to be on my face, and then I’d forget, and then my hands would drop, and then it would fall. I was like, “Can someone just hold this for me? Because I can’t.”

Jennifer: Oh my gosh, I know. It’s like, the thing that you have to hold your own.

Meagan: Yeah. You can’t have anyone else touch it. That’s the rule.

Jennifer: Exactly.

Meagan: Yeah.

Jennifer: Oh I know. Yeah, that was terrible because I was like, “Okay, if I could just get this thing to work properly, maybe I could keep going,” but it didn’t work like that. Everyone was, not yelling at me, but just like, “Hold it on your face. Just hold it there.” I was like, “I can’t.” It was horrible. So I was like, “Screw this. Let’s forget about this.”

So they were like, “Do you want to try fentanyl?” I was like, “I really don’t want fentanyl,” because my whole take on the situation was like, “How is it that I’m not allowed to take Advil but I can take fentanyl?” It just didn’t make sense to me.

Meagan: Right?

Jennifer: So I was like, “Okay, let’s just do the epidural then.” They were like, “Well, that has fentanyl in it too.” So I was like, “Okay, whatever. I’m not going to get through this without it,” or so I thought. I ended up getting the epidural. I was 8 centimeters at that point and it worked right away, but then immediately after I had got it, his heart rate dropped really low to 70. Immediately, they were just like, “Okay. We are taking you to the OR. We’ve got to get this baby out right now.”

So they rolled me to the OR and I was freaking out the whole time, of course. My parents were in there and they were just talking. They had no idea what was going on. They threw my husband some scrubs and they rolled me in there. Everyone was just like, “What? What happened?” No one else was paying attention, but by the time they got me in there, his heart rate stabilized. They were like, “Oh, never mind.”

Meagan: It’s actually really common for babies' heart rates to drop after an epidural.

Jennifer: Yeah, which at the time, I didn’t know that. The nurses were telling me, “We have never seen this before.”

Meagan: What?!

Jennifer: Yes, and since then, I’ve been like, that’s either a huge lie or this is their first time being a nurse.

Meagan: Yeah, that’s interesting because I see it all of the time as a doula.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Meagan: Sometimes, it’s getting more fluid. Sometimes, it’s stabilizing mom’s blood pressure. Sometimes, it’s just changing the position because they sit you up, you curl over, and then they lay you flat on your back. Between those three positions, baby’s like, “Whoa, what the heck?” And sometimes, it’s just slightly moving to the right or the left and it can recover.

Jennifer: Yes, yes. And since then, I’ve learned that. I also know that my blood pressure is naturally really low so that probably has something to do with it.

Meagan: Yep, yep.

Jennifer: Yeah, so they rolled me back in and they were like, “Just kidding, you can have a vaginal birth,” and I was like, “Okay.” So they checked me again. I had a million cervical checks and they were like, “Okay, you are at a 9.5. The baby is coming soon,” and I was like, “Okay cool.” So they were like, “You just have a little cervical lip.” They put a peanut ball in between my legs and I lay there for two hours. Nothing was happening. I was feeling a lot of pressure, but I wasn’t feeling the urge to push. It was just a lot of pressure if that makes sense.

The nurse next to me– I remember just laying there and I was like, “Oh my gosh. When is something going to happen?” I was just over it at that point. And the nurse was sitting next to me on her computer and she was like, “You know, I know you don’t want medication, but the doctor and I really think that the lowest dose possible of Pitocin might get this baby out right now.” I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable with that.” She was like, “We can just do a 2, the absolute lowest dose, and we really think it will help.”

I was like, “Uh, okay.” So they did that and once again, immediately, his heart rate dropped really low. Everyone came rushing into the room again and I was just laying there freaking out. It just got so frantic so fast. This nurse started saying, “Okay, it’s been three minutes without a heart rate. Three minutes, four minutes, five minutes,” just counting it like that. The doctor was right there and she was like, “Okay, push. Just push.” I tried once and she was like, “Not like that. No, no, no. You’re doing it wrong. Just push.” I was just so flustered.

Meagan: Oh my goodness, yeah.

Jennifer: Yeah. It was crazy. The nurse next to me just continued saying, “Seven minutes, eight minutes, nine minutes,” and eventually, the doctor was just like, “Okay, we’ve got to get this baby out.” So once again, they rolled me back into the OR. I’m a first-time mom. I’ve never given birth before and I’m like, “Is he alive? I don’t know.” So they rolled me back there and they moved me onto the table. The nurse put the doppler on my belly and she could not find his heartbeat. She was just moving it all around my stomach and couldn’t find it. I was screaming and crying. I was like, “Is he okay?” And they were just like, “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay. Stop screaming.”

I just felt so unsupported at that moment. No one could understand how I was feeling. The anesthesiologist came in and he was like, “Look, we are just going to have to put you under. We have to get him out now.” I just burst into tears and I was like, “I’m not going to be awake for the birth of my son? Is there any other way to do this?” He eventually agreed. He gave me all kinds of stuff and he was like, “Okay, let’s just try this when you’re awake.” So he gave me all kinds of stuff. I was feeling fairly numb, but not all the way numb. I could feel them doing everything they were doing, but it wasn’t severely painful. I was still screaming. I think I was just so scared.

My husband wasn’t in there the whole time. They wouldn’t let him in until maybe halfway through the surgery.

Meagan: What?!

Jennifer: Yeah. He came in eventually.

Meagan: Jeez. That’s scary for him and super scary for you too.

Jennifer: It was. It was really scary. I just felt so alone laying there on this cold table not knowing if my baby was okay. So he came in and he was freaking out worse than me the whole time. I just have to say that at the beginning of my labor when I was laboring without pain medications, he was puking in a bag in the corner because he was so freaked out.

Meagan: Oh no.

Jennifer: And I was getting mad at him. I was like, “I should be the one puking right now, not you.” Yeah, it was sad. But anyway, he came into the room and he was holding my hand. He didn’t say a word. He was just looking into my eyes, crying. I was screaming back at him. Eventually, I felt them lift something out of me and it was him. He was crying and it was the best moment of relief. I couldn’t believe he was okay.

They put him over the drape and they took him back immediately. My husband went back there and they were weighing him and stuff. I was just asking my husband, “What does he look like? What color is his hair?” I kept asking, “Can I have my baby? Can I have my baby? Can you put him on my chest?” They were like, “No, you can’t see him yet.” It ended up being 45 minutes before I got to see him. I was just so sad to have to be asking what he looked like. It just felt so wrong.

Meanwhile, they were stitching me back up and that’s when everything started kicking in, all of the numbing stuff they gave me. I started feeling like I couldn’t breathe or swallow. It was numb up to my throat. My husband came back and I was just like, “I can’t breathe. Something is wrong.” The anesthesiologist was standing above my head talking on the phone. I was just like, “Excuse me, help. Help!” and he just kept talking on the phone. I so vividly remember that moment of feeling like I was going to die and no one–

Meagan: Not being acknowledged?

Jennifer: Yes. Yes. I look back at it now and I’m like, “I probably wasn’t going to die, obviously.” But when you’re feeling that way–

Meagan: Yeah, but when you’re feeling that way your mind’s not like, “I’m going to be okay.” It’s like, “I don’t feel like I can breathe.”

Jennifer: Yes. Yes.

Meagan: That’s where your mind is and it’s not able to really go anywhere else.

Jennifer: Exactly. It was a scary moment and my husband had to be like, “Hey, help her. Please help her.” So anyways, he gave me more stuff. I don’t know what any of the stuff was. I do have my records, but I mean, it’s all scientific talk, all the stuff I never planned on having. Anyway, they eventually rolled me into the recovery room and when we were on our way there, that’s when they put him on my chest. His name’s August. They put August on my chest and I just remember thinking, “Are you sure this is my baby?”

I remember everyone talking about this moment of bliss and love. I didn’t feel anything. I just felt like there was a baby on my chest. It was really sad.

Meagan: Yeah, disconnect a little bit.

Jennifer: Definitely disconnect. I think I was just so traumatized by the day.

Meagan: Oh yeah, and medicated.

Jennifer: Yes, and so heavily medicated that I just couldn’t think at all. You know, once we got back to the room and I started breastfeeding him, that connection started slowly building. I was puking all night because of the anesthesia. It was just hard.

The next day, I started feeling so in love with him. I started feeling how most moms feel, but I really struggled after that because I just felt like my body was broken. I didn’t give birth to this baby. This baby was cut out of me. Maybe I couldn’t have done it. I’m not a real woman, you know? I struggled with those feelings for a really long time. I also felt like something was missing. I loved him so much the first year of his life, but I was just like, “Why am I not happy? Why am I trying to escape motherhood somehow?” I don’t know. I wanted to be with him, but I just felt like there was just some overwhelming sense of sadness over my life during the first year.

I had severe anxiety. I was so scared to leave him anywhere. I couldn’t sleep at all because I just wanted to stare at him. It was just not how I pictured motherhood. That’s when I started thinking about VBAC and being a doula and everything. I started going on these long walks every day with my son because that’s when COVID hit. I couldn’t go to the gym or anything, so I just went on walks every day and I would listen to your guys’ podcast for at least an hour, at least an episode a day. It just brought me so much relief at that moment hearing other women who have also gone through the same thing and other women talking about how they felt broken too. I knew I wasn’t alone. So thank you for your podcast. It helped me so much.

Meagan: Aw, that makes me feel so happy.

Jennifer: Yes, you should.

Meagan: And thank you for all of those who have shared their stories leading up to yours to help you and just like you are doing right now. Every story pays it forward.

Jennifer: Absolutely. I think there is so much magic in women sharing their stories together. It just makes them feel so much more united.

Meagan: Absolutely, yep.

Jennifer: Definitely. So fast forward, my son was– how old was he? 22 months or something? I got pregnant again. It was our first try. We really wanted that age gap, so it was awesome. This whole time, I had been living, breathing, and eating VBAC. All I wanted in life was to have a VBAC. I knew it was going to be different. I was going to go a different route. I was so freaked out about the hospital at that point. I knew I didn’t want to go back. I sought midwifery care and I had this beautiful, amazing midwife. Her name was LaMonica. She was so laid back, so calm, and so trusting of my body. Anytime I had concerns, she would just be like, “You’re fine. You’re going to do fine.”

She just never made a big deal about anything. It just felt normal. That was exactly what I needed. I spent so much of my pregnancy journaling, meditating, and talking to the baby. I knew that I was capable. I just wanted to cut everything else out from my life that wasn’t serving me, I guess. I didn’t watch any TV or listen to any negative birth stories or anything. I didn’t talk to anyone about my plans who weren’t going to be supportive of them. I just didn’t want anything negative in my head.

We were planning a home birth and I was really excited about it. I was 40 weeks and 6 days, I think, or 40 weeks and 5 days. I was starting to get a little bit nervous about the time limits and stuff that California has on home birth. For anyone who doesn’t know, you can’t be 42 weeks or over. They would have to transfer care. I was still a week away, but we were talking about it a little bit about what happened if– I was just so freaked out about the hospital. It was starting to stress me out really badly.

She was like, “Well, I could sweep your membranes if you want me to.” I was like, “Sure. I guess the worst that could happen is nothing.” You know? So I got my membranes swept and then not the next day, but the day after– I was having a lot of prodromal labor that whole week. I had nights where I would have sensations that were ten or fifteen minutes apart or closer all night, and then I would wake up and they would go away.

This night, in particular, I was having the same sensations all night. I woke up and they didn’t go away. I had a feeling like, “Maybe this is it. We’ll see.” I got my membranes swept, so I knew that it was a possibility. I was just doing my daily things, hanging out with my friends, and taking care of my son. My husband, around 1:00 or so, put my son down for a nap. I’m a photographer too, so I was sitting at my computer editing on my birth ball and I was noticing, “Okay. These are still here and they are getting a little stronger and closer together.”

I went to the bathroom and my mucus plug came out. I was like, “Yes. Sweet. That means things are happening.” My dad had invited us over for dinner that night and I was like, “Let’s still go. I might be in early labor, but who cares? Let’s still go.” He lives about two miles away from my house. I was like, “Huh, maybe I should walk.” Oh, and just to preface, I had been so weird the whole pregnancy about the baby’s position because I just wanted him or her, we didn’t know the sex, in a good position to come out the right way. We went to Disneyland at around 35 weeks pregnant and I sat in a car reclined the whole time, then I sat in this massage chair reclined and I was like, “This one time won’t hurt,” but it was so weird because after that weekend, he– turned out to be a boy– was OP and he stayed OP.

I did everything in my power to turn him occiput anterior, but he just wanted to stay sunny-side-up. I decided to walk to my dad’s house because I thought it might help kick things into gear and it might help with his position. I put my son in his stroller and I started walking there. I was having the waves every five to seven minutes. They were definitely getting to the point where I had to breathe a little bit through them, but they were fine. So I walked the two miles, and then I got to my dad’s house. My husband and my dad were talking, my son was playing, and we ordered pizza and stuff. I was just standing in the corner swaying my hips.

My dad was like, “So is baby might be coming soon?” I was playing it cool. I didn’t want to make a big deal. By the time the pizza got there, I was not hungry. I ordered this healthy pizza with cauliflower crust and stuff and I was like, “I should probably eat something because I have a feeling this will be the last time I want to eat.” We were all sitting at the counter and everyone was eating their pizza. I was standing, leaning over the counter, swaying my hips, and eating my pizza.

A couple of minutes after that, my husband was like, “You look like you need to go home.” And I was like, “Yeah, I think so.” It was starting to get to the point where I couldn’t keep it on the down low anymore. My dad, once again, was like, “Do you think the baby is coming this week?” We were about to leave and I was like, “I’m pretty sure I’m in labor right now.” He was like, “Really?” I was like, “Yeah, I think so.”

So we went home and we put my son to bed. I was brushing my teeth and swaying. I went to go lay down with him and I was just thinking, maybe I can go to sleep for a little bit. I definitely couldn’t, but I was able to lay for maybe 30 or 45 minutes. My husband was still out in the living room feeding the cats or something. I texted him from the room and I was like, “I think it’s time to set up the birth tub and everything else.”

He set up our living room so beautifully. He hung up all of these lights and put up the birth tub. It was just exactly how I wanted it. It was so peaceful and beautiful. He went to bed and I really wanted, throughout my pregnancy, to labor by myself for a while. I just think it’s so amazing how powerful women’s bodies are and I just wanted to experience that without distraction.

So I came into the living room and the kitchen. I was laboring alone and just listening to music, swaying, setting up some last-minute stuff, hanging up my affirmations, and everything like that. The contractions started getting closer and closer. By the time they were four minutes apart, I called my doula and I had her come over. It was probably 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. at this point. I probably started active labor around 7:30 or 8:00.

So she got there and by the time she got there, I could hardly answer the door. It just seemed that it was progressing so fast. I was handling them really well. I was just on my hands and knees basically the whole time. By the time she got there, they were three minutes apart, so we called my midwife and she came over around midnight. I was just like, “Can I get in the tub? I want the tub so badly.”

Originally, I didn’t want any cervical checks, but she was like, “Would you want one just to make sure you are far enough along to where it would be a good idea to get into the tub?” I consented to that and she said I was 8-9 centimeters. We were all stoked and all celebrating. We thought that it was going to be sometime soon. So I got into the tub and was vocalizing through the contractions and everything. Everyone was being super supportive. I didn’t want anyone to touch me, but it was really, really awesome having the support just in the room.

I learned a lot as a doula through that experience because I was like, “Gosh, I don’t always need to always be doing something. I don’t need to always be touching someone or doing anything. I can just be there holding space and it means so much.”

Meagan: Yes. I was going to say that holding space is sometimes one of the most powerful tools as a doula that we can have and bring to the space.

Jennifer: Absolutely. Just having that feminine energy in the room, knowing that these people are here for me and they believe in me, made it feel just so amazing. So I was in the tub and they were bringing me water and stuff. I felt fine. It was intense, but it’s just crazy looking back at both birth stories and how I wrote out the birth stories. The first one was all about pain and, “I can’t do this,” “This is so hard,” and “I’m dying.” I thought I was going to die. This time, all of my words were just, “It was so amazing.” it just flowed. It was intense, but I didn’t think it was painful, at least at this point.

So I was laboring all night in that tub. Mind you, I was at 8-9 centimeters at midnight. So at 10:00 in the morning, my midwife asked to check me again, and I hadn’t progressed at all. I was just like, “Oh my god. This is crazy. I haven’t slept. Nothing’s happening.” I wasn’t feeling the urge to push and my contractions, I did notice at the moment, were spacing out. I was just like, “What is the deal?”

I couldn’t pee by myself. I eventually peed a little bit. It was just so hard for me. I felt like I couldn’t do it and my midwife was like, “You know, nothing is wrong. We could stay here as long as you want to, but do you want to? I don’t want to force you. You’re doing great, but do you feel like you’re suffering?” Because she could tell. The energy was shifting at that point. She was like, “Why don’t we go do some side-lying releases on the bed and we will see if that helps?”

There are so many things that I wish I could have done, but you know, when you are laboring, you can’t doula yourself.

Meagan: No, exactly. That’s what I was talking about earlier. Even as a doula, you can’t doula yourself. It’s so weird.

Jennifer: Yes.

Meagan: There was a time where I should have been like, “I should get up on hands and knees and do shaking the apples with the rebozo.” It wasn’t in my mind. I didn’t think about it and I didn’t have my doulas there quite yet. I had my cousin and I could have had her do that, but I just wasn’t in that space.

Jennifer: Yes, yeah. When you are in labor land, you can’t think logically. You are just thinking of what’s happening now.

Meagan: Mhmm, yep. Exactly.

Jennifer: So that was a bummer, but we did the side-lying releases and that’s when things became painful. I did ten contractions on each side and I was just like, “Nope. Nope. I’m going to go take a nap. This is what’s happening. I need a nap.” So I had this in my head that I was going to go to the hospital and take a nap there, even though I was fully dilated and that clearly wasn’t going to happen, but that’s what I wanted to do.

So they packed up all of my things for me and got in the car. Wyatt, my husband, had the windows down and I was roaring through these contractions. We were at these red lights and I was like, “Oh my god, these people. I don’t even know what they are thinking right now,” but I didn’t care.

We pulled up to the hospital and I walked in. We weren’t supposed to be there. They called ahead of time, but I was just walking through the entrance, leaning over on things and making all of these crazy noises. Everyone was staring and trying to get me to sign papers. I was just like, “Dude, no.” We got into triage and stayed there for what felt like forever, but it turned out to be, I think, two hours altogether before I got this epidural that I thought would save my life and let me sleep.

My head space was thinking, “I’m not going to get a vaginal birth if I don’t get rest,” because I had been up all night doing this. I had been dilated almost fully all night. It was just so tiring. So I got this epidural and it failed. 100%, it failed. I was just so bummed out because I was like, “What about my nap? I was going to take a nap. I need this nap!”

They were just like, “No. That’s not going to happen.” The doctor there broke my water. My water hadn’t broken yet. Not something I wanted, but at this point, I was like, “Do whatever.” He was like, “Well, it looks like we are going to have a baby. Start pushing.” I didn’t feel the urge to push, but I had been dilated for so long. I just went along with what they said.

I pushed and at this point, my legs were getting numb, but I still felt that the contractions were getting more intense. It numbed my legs, so I got stuck on my back, but I could still feel everything. It just made everything painful. I couldn’t be in my positions anymore. I couldn’t move. At this point, I’m screaming my lungs out, telling my husband, “I am not doing this for one more second. Just cut this baby out of me. I can’t do this.” He was just so supportive and amazing and looking at me straight in the eyes. He had tears in his eyes and he was just like, “You are doing this. You are going to do this. You can. You can do this.”

The nurse next to me was like, “I’m not letting you go into a section. You’re way too close. You are going to do this.”

Meagan: Aww.

Jennifer: The doctor as well. I was like, “No. Just get him out. Can you just pull him out?” Him, but I didn’t know it was a boy. He was like, “Nope. Nope. You’re going to do this all by yourself. You’re going to get this baby out.” I pushed for two hours forcefully which was definitely not something I wanted to do, but it happened and eventually, he started crowning with the doctor’s manual manipulation. He was having to reach his hands in because my son was OP and his head was kinked to one side.

That explains why he didn’t want to come out. But eventually, he came out. My husband got to announce, “It’s a boy.” We were just bawling. We couldn’t believe that it happened. It was the best moment of my whole life. It was the sweetest thing ever. I just couldn’t believe it. Everything made sense once he came out. I got that moment that I missed with my other son.

It was really awesome because this doctor was so amazing. He was asking as I was crowning, “Everything is really tight. You’re going to tear. Can I cut you?” I was like, “Can you not cut me?” I was like, “Can you not?” He was like, “Okay.” No pushback at all. I tore naturally and my husband was like, “Hey, please don’t wipe him down at all,” and they didn’t. They didn’t wipe him down. They didn’t touch him. He was screaming and he was on my chest. The placenta came out right away. It must have been three minutes because someone said the word “Pitocin” and I was like, “No, thank you. I don’t want Pitocin.”

We just skipped that part and they were like, “You know, usually we do it for hemorrhage management.” I was like, “Yeah, but I’m not hemorrhaging, so can we skip it?”

Meagan: Yeah.

Jennifer: They were like, “Sure, yeah. That’s fine.” They were like, “Is it okay if we cut the cord?” I was like, “Can you just put the whole placenta on my stomach?” And they did that. They didn’t cut the cord at all. They just left the placenta attached to the baby on my belly for 30 minutes. It was so awesome. I got to see everything in its glory. Everything I missed the first time was happening. They were like, “Well, I’m assuming you don’t want any of these newborn procedures, right?”

I was like, “No,” and they were like, “Okay, fine.” They didn’t give me any pushback. I was GBS+. I chose with a lot of thought. I decided not to get antibiotics and we didn’t do any of the newborn procedures after. No one gave us any trouble at all. We were just so respected and it felt like family around us. No one made us feel bad for our decisions at all and I profusely thanked the team. I was like, “Thank you so much for letting me still be in charge of this.”

Meagan: Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer: The doctor was like, “I wish more that doctors let women have their stories the way they want them to. I wish that more women were respected.” I just don’t think he’ll ever know what kind of impact he made on me and my husband. It was just something we never thought we would get in a hospital.

The last thing I wanted to add was that even though I was horrified about ending up at a hospital, every dream I had about this baby– I had so many dreams that I was having this beautiful, vaginal birth. The weird thing was that they were all in the hospital. Every single dream, he was born so peacefully in a hospital. I was just thinking, “Why can’t I picture this happening at home?” But I feel like, in the end, it was just the way it was meant to be. I’m grateful for the whole experience.

Meagan: That’s so awesome. So awesome.

Jennifer: Yeah, it was so amazing. Thank you.

Meagan: I love that, especially going from having a transfer, that even though you were in a new environment, they really tried to keep the same feel and desires in place, and they listened. They weren’t like, “Nope. We have to do this. Nope. We’re going to do this. It’s policy.” It was like, “Okay, you don’t want this? We don’t have to do this.”

Jennifer: Exactly.

Meagan: That’s really how it is, but it’s not how it happens a lot of the time.

Jennifer: Yes.

Meagan: It’s okay to say, “No, I don’t want that.” Whether you are planning a home birth or not, you don’t have to have these things happen just because you’re in the hospital. You don’t.

Jennifer: Yes.

Meagan: And so that’s something I wanted to also send a reminder about because you can advocate for yourself. You really can.

Jennifer: Yes. Yeah, and I thought that it was going to be a fight. The best surprise was that it was a respectful, “Okay,” instead of, “You know, you really should do this. Your baby could die.” Blah blah blah blah. I know the risks. I came in knowing the risks and benefits to everything and no one pushed back on it. They let me do what I wanted to do as his mom.

Meagan: Mhmm, mhmm. I love that. I love, love, love that. Congratulations.

Jennifer: Thank you.

Meagan: Yeah. We have a blog all about how to choose where to birth. I want to talk about how even if you choose to birth at home or a birth center or out of the hospital, and then it happens to go back to the hospital, that’s okay. It’s hard because so many times in our world, we think, “Oh, we failed. We didn’t get to do this.” I even worried about that. I was in labor for 42 hours and things were just moving really slowly. I was stalling out and hanging out there. I was at a 4 and I think at a 6. They were doing NSTs on me at the birth center. I was thinking, “They’re going to transfer me. This is it. I’m going to transfer.”

At that moment, my doula looked at me and said, “Yeah, that’s something that’s being discussed but nothing is happening yet.” In my mind, I said, “Okay. If this happens, you have to be okay with it. That’s okay. You’re just going to change locations. That’s it.” And that’s okay. It’s okay to change locations, so I want to remind anyone out there if for some reason, a home birth or a birth center transfers to the hospital, know that it’s okay and you didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing failed. It’s just that the story is changing. You’re changing the page and it’s going to a new place. It’s okay to have changed.

Jennifer: Yeah, and I think it’s also important to remember that your story is 50% yours and 50% your baby’s.

Meagan: Yeah.

Jennifer: Your baby might need something different than you need or something different than you want. You can’t control someone else’s destiny.

Meagan: Absolutely, yes. Yes. I love that. 50% yours and 50% your baby’s. I love that so much. So yeah, if you want to read more about home birth after Cesarean options or HBAC options, we have a blog about it in deciding what’s best, hospital or home. It’s different for everybody. We encourage all people to follow their hearts, their minds, their guts, and what resonates with them. If a home birth doesn’t resonate and a hospital does, great, and if a hospital birth doesn’t and a home birth does, great. This is your birth. Your birth. You get to choose.

So congratulations again and thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me.

Closing

Interested in sharing your VBAC story on the podcast? Submit your story at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Julie and Meagan’s bios, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.

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