My Healing Birth and Gentle VBAC - Part 1: My Pregnancy and MyBirth in Awareness

12:50 AM Unknown 0 Comments

This pregnancy was challenging. It might have been our third, but we struggled still.

During our first and second trimester of pregnancy, I had hyperemesis gravidarum. My nausea was so severe that I lost 16 lbs on the first trimester alone. The only liquid I could tolerate was sparkling water and talbos ng camote juice, the recipe of which we learned from our doula, Velvet. Also, even if I couldn’t tolerate any food, we developed gestational diabetes (GDM).

On the second trimester, we learned that we had placenta previa totalis and it did migrate upward in the third trimester. During the third trimester, baby kept onmoving from cephalic to breech position.

Since we had controlled GDM, I had to go on a regular non-stresstest, which is expensive. It felt silly because even having almost no foodintake, we still had GDM.

I then kept having contractions on my 34^th week.We grew very concerned and we were in constant communication with our doula, Velvet, because of thefrequent contractions. Doula Velvet pointed out that it might be prodromallabor. When we realized it was indeedprodromal labor, we relaxed.

As if these things weren’t enough, our eldest daughter gotchicken pox on our 20^th week. I haven’t had the pox yet, nor do Ihave the vaccine for it. I couldn’t believe I was still sane after those monthsof challenges.

But God was our refuge and our strength. Through these tryingtimes, we had to be strong, and we couldn’t do it alone. Sharing our Pregnancy Verse: “I cando all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

My husband, Jonathan, is an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).He availed his paternity leave early, starting on my 38^th week,hoping to be present during the birth. We have been praying for the baby to wait for him. We were worried that the baby might come outearly.

But what happened was the opposite! We were almost at theend of my 40^th week and  nearlythe end of Jonathan’s leave. He was already about to go back to Myanmar. WheneverI get tired of waiting I’d hear Velvet say, “Kahit anong gawin mo lalabas atlalabas ang baby, hindi yan pupunta sa likod.” We realized, you can plan and plan and plan, but only God knows when. Babywill be born when baby is ready.

There was a better plan for Jonathan’s stay here in the Philippines.Since he only comes home once a month, we used the time to be together, toemotionally bond as husband and wife before a major change arrives. He was also able to use this time to connectwith our two older children before the baby comes out.

============

Our journey to a VBAC

Each woman is different and each has a right to decide what kind of birthing experience she’ll have. We have heard so many scary stories on vaginal birth after cesarian or VBAC—the cases of uterine rupture are the most popular.

In preparation for our VBAC, we read stories of those whoactually experienced it, background and statistics, and risks of a repeatcaesarean, to the point that I got crazy thinking about all of these! Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be informed,it’s just that I had a have a hard time when I let it get to me.

We wanted a VBAC. Weprayed for wisdom. We know that we willbe having a medical/birthing team present to take care of the pregnancy andbirthing. When we had that confidencewith the team, we laid everything on God’s will.

Pregnancy and birthing is a partnership between the mother and the baby. I embraced this and made this my truth, whichmade the experience a lot easier. Instead of asking why the baby is making this experience difficult for me, I tried to see it as our journey together.

To be continued....