My Birth Story – Part 2 A Natural VBAC Birth At 37 Weeks

My second daughter Glorianne was born one month ago. Today I’m sharing my birth story where I had a natural VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section) at 37 weeks in the hospital. I shared about my frustrating week-long labour in PART 1. Here is my VBAC experience.

Labour Pains

The morphine and gravol shot gave me four sweet hours of sleep. I think it was the best 4 hours of sleep I had gotten all week. But I woke up at 3 am with another urge to pee. Then the contractions hit me like a tidal wave and made me double-over with pain. 

I crawled back into bed and cried – because of the pain but more so out of frustration and despair.

I was absolutely exhausted. I hadn’t slept properly for days. I couldn’t stand the indefinite pain I was constantly in. I drowned in self-pity. Why couldn’t my birth be straight-forward and simple? And the big question that had been causing me anxiety all week: WHEN was the baby coming? If I was only 4cm dilated and the pain had already built up to this intensity, how was I going to survive slowly dilating all the way to 10cm? 

I think I had a mental breakdown of sorts that night.

The pain was all-consuming as the contractions got more intense. They were strong, close together and sometimes overlapping. It felt like I didn’t get a break. I found that rocking back and forth and getting on my hands and knees were positions that made the contractions more bearable. Lying down was the worst thing I could’ve done.

I also really tripped out because it felt like I had to pee with every contraction even though nothing came out. I remember crying and blubbering about having a UTI (not true – it’s just another sign of labour). I eventually ended up just sitting on the toilet and refused to get up.

Everyone has a different way of dealing with pain. How do you handle it? I cave into myself. I don’t speak. I become unresponsive when spoken to. I sort of lose sight of my surroundings and just deal by zoning out. It’s not a pretty sight.

I need to add a disclaimer here. The emphasis of my experience so far has been my contraction PAINS but not everyone’s experience is as daunting as mine. Every woman’s body and birth experience is different. I’m sure my mental and emotional state also helped magnify my particularly painful experience.

I was in a dilemma. I didn’t want to go back to the hospital. They had just sent us home a few hours ago. And frankly, I was tired of the back and forth. I was convinced that I was still not in active labour and wouldn’t be any time soon. We loitered at home for as long as we could.

My Natural VBAC Birth Experience

My parents arrived at our house in the morning to help me take care of Rosie just like every other day that week. My mom found me on the toilet completely zoned out.

Everyone decided it’d be a good idea to go back to the hospital. I clearly couldn’t survive another few minutes at home. I remember muttering “call the ambulance” because I couldn’t envision myself walking out to the car. Good thing no one listened to me. With lots of coaxing, I managed to get to the car and off we went.

When my mom wheeled me to the labour and delivery unit, I was shaking with pain. The nurse assessed me.

I was 9 cm dilated.

The baby was already crowning.

Her heartbeat was faint and slow. 

There was a flurry of activity as I was whisked to a birthing room. Everything happened so fast. It was all a blur. I remember the nurses encouraging me to take deep breaths. 

The baby was not tolerating the delivery so there was a rush to have her come out as soon as possible.

As planned, I chose not to get an epidural. Ideally, I wanted a natural VBAC birth (although at 37 weeks was unexpected!). I figured the pain couldn’t get any worse. After a quick rundown of the plan, the OB broke my water. I was told to breathe, push, breathe, push, and repeat. I was completely fixated on the nurses. I did exactly as I was told. It really helped to distract me from the pain. In fact, I don’t remember the pushing to have added any extra pain or discomfort at all. It was probably the adrenaline. 

The progress wasn’t fast enough as the baby appeared to be in more and more distress. The OB used a little vacuum-extractor to help speed up the process. The whole delivery process must’ve taken less than 10 minutes.

After 9 days of expectantly waiting, baby Glorianne was born at 8:40 am on July 4. 

It’s a surreal feeling to be able to snuggle with your newborn baby immediately after birthing her. Holding her with my hubby by my side was a very precious moment. I’m only sorry now that I didn’t get to experience this with Rosie when she was born.

This birthing journey has been such an empowering experience. In fact, it is probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever done. 

It’s astonishing how my petite and out-of-shape body could have held a life for 9 months and then birthed out this life. God’s design for a woman’s body to cultivate a baby is absolutely amazing. He gave our bodies such a strength and capability that we often don’t acknowledge and celebrate.

In hindsight, my birthing experience was not terribly traumatic. I basically went through labour at home – which is actually ideal. If only I was aware that I was actually in active labour. It would’ve definitely eased my nerves. I’m also tremendously thankful we made it to the hospital when we did. It seemed like a close call with the baby being in distress as my labour progressed. 

This is my birth story. Glorianne came into the world through a natural VBAC birth at 37 weeks in the hospital. If you haven’t yet, read PART 1 here.

What about you mama? How were your birth experiences?