How to heal birth trauma and have a VBAC in the hospital system.

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The She Births Show:

Janneke’s vaginal birth after cesarean birth stories in Australia and Abu Dhabi.

VBAC stands for vaginal birth after cesarean or, as I like to sometimes call it, ‘the near miracle birth’ in this day and age.

Before we begin, I think it’s helpful to hear some of the statistics, and then we will jump into a truly inspiring VBAC story from Janneke.

Around the world, successful VBAC stats are extremely low.

The BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth in 2020 stated that:

VBAC rates are quite high in countries such as Finland, Norway and The Netherlands (38–55%) and low in Australia and the US (12%) [2,3,4].

In Australia, the vast majority of caesareans undertaken are due to repeat caesareans [2]. In New South Wales (NSW) the VBAC rate varies from 6% in private hospitals to 19% in public hospitals.

So, it is no small feat to psychologically prepare and often push hard for a VBAC within our systems. It really helps us to understand why so many great doulas, educators and midwives are pushing so hard to help prevent that first caesarean too!

I would like to warn some of you that this podcast could be triggering if you have specific birth trauma. It could also be incredibly empowering and healing if you are preparing for a VBAC.

In this episode, we chat about:

• How Janneke prepared for and managed to avoid not only another cesarean but the trauma and triggers from her first labour.
• Her general anaesthetic emergency c-section and the first labour with very little encouragement from providers in Abu Dhabi.
• The two different types of induction she had with each labour.
• We discuss working with a psychologist and becoming more mindful and more selfish (in a healthy way).
• How She Births prepares both parents
• How She Births helps the healing and processing of previous trauma.
• My favourite takeaway that I think we can all benefit from is “NO is a full sentence”.

Episode Resources:

Get your FREE She Births Holistic Pregnancy Guide here: shebirths.com

For more information about She Births Weekend birth classes and Online antenatal education: shebirths.com

Access the She Births Doula service here

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2020