Today we are excited to share Emma’s beautiful birth stories, her first baby boy, Eric, born via caesarean after an induction, and her second baby girl, Chloe, born via a repeat caesarean after reaching full dilation during a spontaneous labour.

Her first pregnancy resulted in a pre-eclampsia diagnosis which led to an induction. Emma beautifully describes this birth journey of labouring with a posterior baby with a deflexed head, her experience of having an epidural and then eventual decision to have a caesarean section at 7cm dilation. While Emma’s caesarean section was done via general anaesthetic due to the spinal anaesthetic not working, she describes having a very positive experience of meeting her baby. She describes an initially difficult postpartum experience followed by months of positive breastfeeding with her son before falling pregnant with her next baby.

Emma’s next baby, Chloe, was conceived just 7 months after her son, Eric’s, caesarean. Emma describes the discussions she had with the OBs, her decision to plan a VBAC for the easier, more positive recovery it would bring and this subsequent labour, birth and postpartum experience. Emma was an incredible advocate of the birth she wanted, including planning out what a future caesarean might look like so as to avoid the difficulties with epidural/spinal anaesthetic and having these difficult conversations before labour. She shares her labour with another posterior baby (but this time, no deflexed head!), what it was like receiving sterile water injections and also talks about getting to full dilation and pushing only to be told her pelvis was incorrectly shaped and not allowing her baby to descend. Emma describes her second caesarean, again via general anaesthetic, and the way that her empowered decisions during pregnancy and birth led to a much more positive recovery and easier breastfeeding journey too.

The reflections shared in this episode are rich and vulnerable, and we believe will be so helpful for women processing their own experiences and journeys through a repeat caesarean after a planned VBAC. We hope you love listening to this episode and learning from Emma’s journey as much as we have enjoyed sharing it with you.

Please join us on our journey to bringing you all kinds of VBAC stories from across the country from here on in by subscribing and following us on social media, @australianvbacstories on Instagram and Australian VBAC Stories on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to rate or review, and tell your friends!

If you are feeling that you might benefit from mental health support after listening to our podcast, please reach out to one of the organisations below:

PANDA ⁠https://panda.org.au/⁠

Gidget Foundation https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/⁠

COPE Australia ⁠https://www.cope.org.au/⁠

If you've experienced mistreatment or disrespectful care in your pregnancy, birth or postpartum and are seeking advocacy support, please contact one of the following organisations:

Maternity Choices Australia ⁠https://www.maternitychoices.org/⁠

Maternity Consumer Network ⁠https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/⁠

Thank you for tuning in to our podcast.

We are so excited to bring you the incredible Zelda's four epic birth stories for our 22nd episode!

First things first: We had a few technical struggles recording this episode, so please forgive the occasional glitchiness of the audio quality and consistency. We hope you will still experience the richness of Zelda's experiences as she shares them

It's not often we get to hear about VBA3C stories, and we are so grateful to bring you the second of these stories to the podcast with the incredible Zelda, who shares with us her experiences of planning for a vaginal birth with her first baby, the trauma of her journey to an emergency caesarean and the serious challenges that followed with a baby who didn't feed.

Zelda went on to plan a VBAC with her second baby, only to be thwarted again and find herself with a second caesarean. This time, she knew a lot more and demanded skin-to-skin with her baby, and latching and feeding in theatre, and both this bub and her third bub who was born via a planned elective caesarean, she had much smoother feeding and postpartum experiences with.

However, when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her fourth baby, her first son, she knew she wasn't going to accept another elective caesarean as her only option, and she sought out the support of a private midwife with hospital admitting rights.

Zelda shares her powerful and redemptive VBA3C with her biggest baby (a healthy 5kg baby boy!) and how she reclaimed her power and her faith in her mind and body in doing so.

Thank you, Zelda, we can't wait to hear what you all think!

Please join us on our journey to bringing you all kinds of VBAC stories from across the country from here on in by subscribing and following us on social media, @australianvbacstories on Instagram and Australian VBAC Stories on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to rate or review, and tell your friends!

If you are feeling that you might benefit from mental health support after listening to our podcast, please reach out to one of the organisations below:

PANDA https://panda.org.au/

Gidget Foundation https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/

COPE Australia https://www.cope.org.au/

If you've experienced mistreatment or disrespectful care in your pregnancy, birth or postpartum and are seeking advocacy support, please contact one of the following organisations:

Maternity Choices Australia https://www.maternitychoices.org/

Maternity Consumer Network https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/

Thank you for tuning in to our podcast.

In this episode, we are so incredibly fortunate to have the beautiful Claire share her birth stories with us. Claire is an absolute wealth of wisdom, and the beautifully articulate and insightful way she shares her journey with us opens up some gorgeous, deep conversations with our co-hosts Katelyn and Aimee that you won't want to miss.

Claire takes us through her first pregnancy, where it was flagged that her baby may not have been growing as they should, and the growth scans she underwent, along with a diagnosed breech position and an unsuccessful ECV, led to booking in a planned caesarean. Claire did go into spontaneous labour just before the scheduled date, and was able to labour for a period, but ultimately ended up birthing her baby via caesarean.

Claire openly and vulnerably shares her first postpartum experience, involving a postpartum haemmorhage once she was home from hospital, and the intense physical and mental journey to recovery. We are so grateful that Claire shares a powerful poem she wrote in the trenches of that postpartum, 'Go Home Woman', which beautifully expresses the raw, visceral emotional experience of leaving the hospital with your baby in those fresh days post-birth. We know her words will resonate with so many of our listeners, as they did with us.

After trying to conceive for a year, Claire was able to fall pregnant again. This sadly resulted in a miscarriage, and Claire speaks about the need for women and families to talk more about these experiences.

Not long after, Claire fell pregnant again and began preparing for her VBAC. She talks us through consciously choosing her care provider and place of birth, and gathering her birth support team, which included a particularly-requested third-year midwifery student and her wonderful doula.

Claire's labour and birth is a stunning story, and she takes us on the journey in a beautifully intimate way, generously sharing her insight and wisdom. We won't spoil too much for you, but just know it involves so much power and strength, and will be a wonderful source of inspiration for all women on their VBAC journeys. Claire reflects with us on her birth journeys, and talks about discovering she was worthy of investing in an experience that, for Claire and her family, was momentous and important and worth treating with the reverence it deserved.

We know you are going to absolutely love Claire's story and know it will be an incredibly popular episode. We can't wait to hear what you think.

Find out more about the poetry anthology that Claire mentions in the episode:

What We Carry: Poetry on childbearing brings together the voices of more than 60 contemporary Australian poets. Featuring diverse perspectives on experiences of infertility, conception, termination, loss, pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period, this collection illuminates the endlessly different ways the potential to carry life is experienced.
https://recentworkpress.com/product/what-we-carry-poetry-on-childbearing/

Please join us on our journey to bringing you all kinds of VBAC stories from across the country from here on in by subscribing and following us on social media, @australianvbacstories on Instagram and Australian VBAC Stories on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to rate or review, and tell your friends!

If you are feeling that you might benefit from mental health support after listening to our podcast, please reach out to one of the organisations below:

PANDA https://panda.org.au/

Gidget Foundation https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/

COPE Australia https://www.cope.org.au/

If you've experienced mistreatment or disrespectful care in your pregnancy, birth or postpartum and are seeking advocacy support, please contact one of the following organisations:

Maternity Choices Australia https://www.maternitychoices.org/

Maternity Consumer Network https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/

Thank you for tuning in to our podcast.