Arielle: A VBAC Success
© Lori Ramsey
My 3rd pregnancy was a very planned and desired one. My husband, Phillip and I tried for 16 long months to conceive this child. When I finally did, I was so excited. My pregnancy was a rocky one at best. At the beginning I had high blood sugar - so much of my first and second trimester I dieted and tested my blood 4 times a day. Finally at the start of my 3rd trimester my blood sugars leveled out. Usually that goes just the other way around. Things were finally going smooth until my 30th week hit.
I had given birth to my first 2 children prematurely - so the words “preterm labor” weren’t a shock to me. However I did carry my son for 35 weeks and my daughter for 36 weeks. They were perfectly fine, both crying at the moment of birth. My son was a vaginal birth and my daughter was a cesarean due to breech presentation. So this third time around, I wanted to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and I wanted to do everything possible to have a vaginal birth again. Because I had planned this pregnancy I thought I was doing a good thing by exercising to prepare for the birth.
I walked a mile and a half each day - in hopes of building myself up for the VBAC. I was on my last round at the track when I felt a contraction and a lot of pressure. Being only my 30th week I tried to reason with myself that I was okay. I did nothing until the next day when I finally called my doctor. I was having contractions every 10 minutes. He checked me and thankfully I wasn’t dilating or effacing. He put me on Brethine to stop the contractions.
Unfortunately the Brethine didn’t help, by my 33rd week I was hospitalized and given the Brethine injections and magnesium sulfate twice to stop preterm labor. I also received the steroid shots in case my baby did arrive early. I dilated to 3 centimeters and 85% effaced when my labor finally stopped. Over the next 4 weeks I was on complete bed rest, hospitalized twice again and finally made it to my 37th week.
37 weeks is considered full term. It was a point I had never reached in my pregnancies. That day I actually got out and went to church. It was invigorating. I had gained the most weight ever and was feeling very uncomfortable. Because I had been contracting almost all the time since my 30th week, I really paid no attention to them and I asked God to give me a sign that I was in labor - blood and water.
