VBA2C: Liz and Hunter: an unplanned but triumphant vaginal birth after two cesareans

Liz is an old friend of mine - we went to school together and she was actually one of my very first friends to become pregnant with not one but two little babies - her amazing twins Rachel and Rebecca who are going to be 21 this year, which I can’t quite believe. Liz then had another little girl, Harley almost 5 years ago and just recently gave birth to her little boy Harley. Liz and I spoke from time to time throughout her pregnancy and she always talked about her deep desire to birth her little boy naturally as she had felt robbed of that experience with her girls. As it went, she was talked out of going for a VBA2C by her consultant and elected for another section. However, in the end fate did its job and she got her wished her beautiful little boy naturally just as her heart had desired.  

Here Liz has very generously written her birth story, in her own words:  

So, I’ve had two sections before, one was an emergency section with the twins, that was almost 21 years ago and then Harley almost five years ago - that was elected. With Hunter I wanted to have a natural birth, but they advised me against it and said that they don’t think I would be able to do it just with medical reasons and history etc. I was still thinking about it but then I got gestational diabetes so that didn’t help either and they said a section would definitely need to happen. So obviously I felt like I had to go with the section.  

A day before I had Hunter I was feeling wee niggles and I went to the hospital to be checked and they found it was small labour pains. They done an internal in the labour ward and they said that I wasn’t dilated my cervix was still closed but because of the pain they were going to monitor me upstairs so I was upstairs and then that night my show came away and I told them about it and asked if they wanted to check it they said no we believe you we don’t need to see it.  

Through the night I was still getting pains and when the doctor came round in the morning, I said to the doctor my show’s away I’m still bleeding a wee bit and they said no we think it's just wee pains we’re certain you’re not in labour they never done another internal and sent me home. So I got discharged at 11 and came home about 12 in the afternoon I started getting more pain and I phoned the labour ward twice and they said they were sure I still wasn’t in labour although they hadn’t checked me again from the night before. They said have you took a poo and I said I hadn’t for a couple of days then told me it was constipation pain.  

Me being me I listened to ‘the professionals’ and assumed I was having constipation pain. So all through the night I was getting pains, and they were coming off and on and I was like God it feels like labour pain, and I was like it can’t be and they’ve told me its constipation. So, I was in pain and was like it's not that bad to be labour. Continued through the night and at 4 in the morning my waters broke – oh heaven the pains came I shouted on Scott he was downstairs, and the waters were flowing and it was really painful now, so I phoned 999.  

So, we were on the phone to 999 I was in the bathroom and obviously I had to take everything off my contractions were coming less than a minute apart water kept coming the pain was crazy. The ambulance took about 20 minutes to come and then when they got here they said the baby is on its way so I was on the gas and air it took me another 20 minutes to get down the stairs because the pain kept coming. So, we blue lighted it to the hospital so at this point there was only me and Scott and Harley in the house we had to wait for her to get picked up, so Scott had to follow behind. As soon as he got there I was just about to push.  

So I managed to birth Hunter vaginally with no pain relief except gas and air which I am so proud of myself about because I actually wanted to do it that way and was told I couldn’t. I was in shock for I don’t even know how long because I didn’t believe I was in labour because they said I wasn’t and I had just managed to push out my son with no pain relief bar the gas and air. And he was almost born in the bathroom and from my water broke to Hunter was born was 2 hours he was born at 6.01 and I phoned the ambulance just after 4. 

By the time I got up in the ward the doctors and midwives came over and apologised to me for discharging me and not believing I was in labour and me being me said to them well it was meant to be I always wanted to have my babies naturally and I always got told no.  

So that’s my birth story – my advice is don’t trust the hospital do what’s right for you! I never even had a tear, a couple of grazes and a healthy beautiful baby boy.  

There is so much to unpick in Liz’s story – being told she was not capable of birthing her baby vaginally as she really wanted to, feeling like she had no other option than agreeing to an elective c-section, being told continually she wasn’t in labour when she actually was, even being diagnosed with constipation over the phone (WTF)!  

But at the end of the day, this is a story of triumph – she did it! She did something she was told she was incapable of doing, she proved them all wrong. She was in labour! She was capable of birthing her baby vaginally, as she so wanted to do! VBA2C is entirely possible! She did it - and she is so fucking proud of herself and so she should be. Despite all of the hurdles and chaos she faced, she did it, she had the birth she had always wanted!