UC_help

Is unassisted birth even possible after c section? Have any of you ever done this? I am doing some personal research, aiming to put my demons to rest regarding my c section 4 years ago. I want to go all natural for my next birth, at the very least a natural birth in a hospital. I don't know what the NHS guidelines are regarding HBAC, but I believe it's not recommended. I'll probably end up doing it anyway because I live about 15 minutes away at the most from my local L&D ward if something was to happen. I'd love to UBAC, but I am so so scared - I still feel scared when I remembering my last labour, which was a horrendous cascade of intervention.

I am new to this community and currently exploring the idea of an unassisted birth. My husband is in the Army and we live less than 5 minutes from the hospital on post, so that is where tricare will pay for me to give birth. If I switch to standard, tricare will cover a home birth with a CNM, but all the CNMs up here work at hospitals.

I am hesitant about going unassisted because there is a decent chance that I would be completely and totally alone. My husband is set to deploy around he time the baby is due and I do not have any friends up here. Our families live in Texas and the chances of someone being able to come up here to be with me are slim to none. In the event that something should go amiss I would rather have more support than my dog or cat can offer.

Has anybody else in this community giving birth completely alone? Also, if there are any military mamas in here, how did you deal with the military after giving birth?

Hi new member, and been meaning to introduce myself, and possibly joining the main UC community (since at this current rate it might be looking like that's how I will be birthing in the next few days/week due to the current turn of events and circumstances)
I apologize for the cross post and to those who've already seen this post in a few other lj communities a bit ago, I just figured since part of this post pertains to UC, and some questions some might be able to help with.

Does anyone on here have experience with going over there (supposed) due date like over 42 weeks, and had to deal with Medicaid, and avoiding transfer of care and inductions? and what did you do?

Right now I'm in a weird predicament and major time crunch for decision making, and trying to really figure out my options and what is the best course, and figured it couldn't hurt to inquire in here.
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Does anyone know where I can get stories/advice about natural/unassisted birth after caesarean? I am not pregnant yet, but my partner and I are planning for our second child.

Put simply: I will be having a caesarean over my cold dead body. Or more realistically, only if not having one will mean either me or the baby will die.

Last time I was pregnant I had an awful time. I had consistently low blood pressure and kept fainting. I had pre-eclampsia and polyhydramniosis (sorry about my spelling!) I was so very ignorant about childbirth and ended up having a caesarean after 'failure to progress'. I did so well until 6cm dilated, then the pain got unbearable because of the position my son was in. I had a few gulps of gas and air, vomited and refused more. Then they gave me a shot of pethidine which ended with me vomiting all over my midwife and having an asthma attack which put me on a nebuliser and then an oxygen mask. It also stopped my contractions, cold dead. They had previously been regular and almost..relieving. After 4 hours of bearing down, they wanted to give me an episiotomy and do a forceps delivery, but I refused and asked for a caesarean because the idea of a cut through my perineum was horrifying to me.

I feel really ashamed of the whole experience, although I'm trying to let go of old feelings, especially as another pregnancy becomes more likely. I'm such much more knowledgeable about pregnancy, nutrition, rest, exercises, perineal massage, exercises to turn the baby etc. I know breathing exercises for the birth, massage techniques and would possibly consider using a TENS machine. But I absolutely don't want drugs, doctors or a caesarean unless me or the baby is dying. I'd rather do it with just my partner, my son and myself. A friend actually said to me, oh are you sure they'd let you do that after last time? I was like...let!? There is no question of 'let', I will do what I want with my baby and my body!

I really want to read as many different experiences as possible. Can anyone share any links/experiences with me, pretty please?

Ok ladies... I had Lillian about 2 hours ago. The placenta appeared to come out ok, but there's a dangler hanging between my legs. My mother looked over the placenta and although it looked whole to me, she thinks it came from the placenta, and pointed it out to me, but as I've just given birth, I'm screwy in the head at the moment. It's been two hours and it's still dangling. Although she breast-crawled (unintentionally, we were waiting for the placenta) and nursed (like a champ!) immediately, she's been pretty sleepy and hasn't been too milk-happy, so I haven't had much of a chance to use nipple stimulation to try to get this little dangler to come out.

Is there any other suggestion? I'd hate to call my scalpel happy medwife about it cause she'll just tell me to come in and not give any alternatives first.


[edit]
Got it! A gentle tug took care of it. It ended up about 8 inches or so, sure enough it's a strip of the sac.

This is the birth story of what was pretty much a UC, but I did have a small amount of assistance - I had a membrane sweep at 42 weeks and 5 days, and I had midwives turn up to assist with cord-cutting and clean-up.

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Sadly we didn’t get any photos of the labour and birth as I hadn’t arranged for an extra person to come and take photos, and Nick wasn’t able to do it as I needed both of his hands on me the whole time. But he did take a few photos of me nursing the baby within minutes of the birth (see icon) and he took several more photos of us the next morning. Once I figure out how to post pictures I’ll attempt to post them here in a separate picture post.

Hi. I can't remember if I ever made an intro post in here, but if not I'm Sarah. I have a 6.5 month old daughter named Arianna who was a natural hospital birth and OB managed prenatal care. I won't detail my experience right now, but it has lead me to the decision that all future children will be born at home into loving arms. That said, I do have one concern that I'm not really sure how to handle and maybe there is someone here who can help.

I had horrible morning sickness with my daughter. It was more than morning sickness. It was all day, every day for 20 weeks straight no natural remedy could touch sickness. Since this is fairly common in pregnant woman, my OB kept telling me that it was normal and that it would pass by the second trimester. Well by 20 weeks it hadn't passed and one night I started throwing up blood. It didn't turn out to be anything serious, just a small tear in my throat from heaving so hard, but it finally prompted somebody to prescribe me something (Zofran) to get the vomiting under control. Oh and it wasn't my OB who prescribed it initially, it was the ER. I went because I was scared when I saw the blood.

Along with an unassisted childbirth, I would really like to have an unassisted pregnancy, but I'm not sure who I would turn to if I end up sick again. The first time around it was just me. This time around I'll have at least one young child to care for (I also have stepkids and who knows at what point they'll be living with us permanently) and I just can't be sick and unable to function. Who would I go to to prescribe me something? If I went to the ER, they would undoubtedly want to know why I was not receiving prenatal care. Could they get me in any kind of trouble if I refuse to seek prenatal care? I know there is no law stating that I HAVE to, but I also know that it's their job to report people who they feel are endangering themselves or another. I am just now getting my husband on board with the idea of a UP/UC which I was convinced would be impossible. The last thing I need is some holier-than-thou doctor throwing around threats and scaring him out of it.

I feel like I'm already so mentally prepared and even excited for this. My confidence has been given an extra boost now that my husband has gone from "no way in hell" to "I think we can do this". There are just a few little bumps I need to work out and this is one of them. Thank you for any help you can give.

Ok, I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum for these questions, but I wasn't sure where else to ask... My first birth was in a hospital, although very easy, short, and not terribly traumatic, I was forced to have an epidural and it really ruined the last of my faith in hospital birth. My family is aware that I would like to have this baby at home, but they've been dead set against it. I've continued making comments, and dropping random statistics and facts around my hubby. Well, my husband has started insinuating that he's ok with the idea of an unassisted birth. Yay!!! Today he asked what all we need for a birth kit at home, that I should go ahead and make sure we have a good birth kit around and that he felt that "he could do it if it comes to it...", which is actually a huge step. I think it was his way of saying yes to homebirth after he'd already said absolutely not. That leads to my questions... I've never been to a birthing class, but I have absolute faith and trust in my body, so I don't really think I'll need to be charged $350 bucks to be taught how to react to childbirth. Is there something I can read to help prepare myself for an unassisted birth at home? Most books I looked at were 20-30$ and I can't afford to buy them all, obviously. I have Spiritual Midwifery, and my husband ordered Emergency Childbirth.

So, we want a birthing kit. There's SO many of them out there. I have 50-75$ budget for the birthing kit and extras, but I don't know what is useful/helpful... All I know for sure that I want is 2 peri bottles, lots of those jumbo puppy pads things (for lack of the "real" name), something to protect the mattress, a footprint thingy (what types are best?), several pair of mesh panties (are there different ones?), and a cord clamp (what kinds are there?). I also want the Born At Home onesie. BTW, what is shepherd’s purse for? What else would I want? I want everything I might possibly need. This is my last baby, so I want things to go as smoothly as possible. Anything to increase comfort before, during and after.

There's a good selection here, but I am totally clueless on what my husband and I need to have? Could someone suggest a specific kit + additional supplies? Or at least a specific birth kit? It doesn't need to be from that site... I have no clue on where I should shop.

I have a deep, jumbo 3 person bathtub with spa jets and stuff (the corner kind that are triangular), so I don't need any kind of birthing pool, I think... but is there some kind of herbs or soak that I could put in the tub while I'm laboring? (preferably one that colors the water :/ my husband's kinda squeamish, and just in case I bleed a bit, I'd rather not tint the water myself.)

Lastly, and kinda off topic; I'm really intrigued by Placenta Essence, and want to do that... but I think my husband and family would seriously question my sanity if I mentioned it to them. Has anyone done this? What would be the best jar to use? I would want the placenta water to be stronger, and more the color of strong tea. I didn't get to see my placenta last time, I was told it was hazardous waste as they took off with it, so, I haven't even the vaguest idea how big a placenta might be. And... silly question... will it work if the distilled water has added fluoride?

Heh.. I'll cut this off here before I think of any more annoying questions.

X-posted to unassistedbirth