The first time I attempted a home birth but after 48 hours (6 in hospital) had only reached 7 centimetres and they insisted on putting me on oxytocin. At that point baby and I both started to get distressed and they insisted on a ceasarean. The second time I got to fully dilated myself within 13 hours but was weeing blood and they decided that the labour was obstructed somehow so did a ceasarean. The baby turned out to be nearly 11 pounds and apparently my bladder was obstructing labour due to being in the wrong position after my previous section.
Despite much advice to the contrary I eventually found an obstetrician who agreed to let me have another go! This time I stayed at home for the first 11 hours, then went to hospital. I had read a lot, had osteopathy and hypnosis and felt fully prepared and confident. When I got to the delivery room, the midwife was very negative but I just smiled and let her monitor the baby for twenty minutes as I stood next to the machine. I then asked to go to the loo and when I came back she couldn't find the heartbeat. She asked me to get up on the bed as the baby may have changed position. I did and she found the heartbeat much lower. Then she said, "oh the baby is crowning" and after a couple of pushes her head was out. It was so easy! There were some complications afterwards with blood loss and a retained placenta but it was definitely the right decision!
Fantastic - I showed them all and I picked up my almost two year old the next day when I got home to celebrate! I would recommend the hypnosis and the osteopathy to anyone. The right state of mind is all important - especially when people keep telling you that you're mad to try a VBAC after two sections!
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