For the first time EVER, all four of The VBAC Link hosts are together in one episode! Founders and original pod hosts Julie Francom and Meagan Heaton join current hosts Lily Wyn and Paige Lloyd to answer your live VBAC questions. With more than 15 years of combined doula experience and hundreds of births attended, this episode is jam-packed with wisdom, evidence-based birthy tips, and so much love for our listeners who have been with us all of these years.

Topics include:

• How to decide between a VBAC and repeat cesarean
• Preventing PROM and chorioamnionitis
• 39-week induction recommendation early in pregnancy
• Engaging baby's head before labor
• How to trust your intuition
• Coping with fear
• Tips on practical birth prep

Tiny Blessings Doula Services

Julie Francom Birth Stories

Love Wyns Doula Services

The Birth Narrative Doula Services

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

Online VBAC Doula Training

Today we sit down with Alex, a nurse practitioner and mama of two, who shares her journey from a scheduled breech cesarean to a fast, spontaneous VBAC at a birth center. After two unsuccessful ECV attempts, Alex planned for a cesarean with her first baby. Along the way, she also experienced the heartbreak of miscarriage before welcoming her daughter. Alex opens up about navigating conflicting medical opinions (including being told by an MFM that her baby would die– not okay!!) and how her and her medical doctor husband’s views on out-of-hospital birth evolved over time.

Alex also shares why practicing for labor could only take her so far before surrender became the greatest lesson, the importance of surrounding yourself with more than just a supportive provider, and how having an encouraging birth team made all the difference. Alex especially talks about how her VBAC-certified doula was an invaluable part of that team.

We also discuss some of the evidence behind using ultrasounds to measure scar thickness as a predictor of a VBAC outcome or uterine rupture, and why ACOG does NOT recommend it.

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

Online VBAC Doula Training

Today’s episode is a deep dive with just Paige and Lily all about LONG pregnancies and LONG labors. Are due dates expiration dates? Is it okay to go past 41 weeks with VBAC? How do you stay sane and steady when you are more than readyyyy for labor to start?

And when it does and things take much, much longer than you hoped, (you’re in good company because Lily knows all about this with her 66-hour VBAC) we’ve got you. How do you overcome a labor stall? How to reset on the morning of another full day of labor? When is it time to reassess?

Lily and Paige share a peek into their doula brains with lots of tips, research, and stories as two gals who love birth and want you to know that you are stronger than you ever thought. 🙌

2013 PubMed Study - Length of Pregnancies

2001 PubMed Article - Estimating the Normal Duration of Human Pregnancies

The Honey Jar Honey Sticks

Summer Fridays Face Mist

20 Questions to Ask a Doula

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

Online VBAC Doula Training