International Cesarean Awareness Network

Education, Support, & Advocacy for Birth Justice & Healing

Alex’s Emergency Cesarean Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

After being in labor for nearly 24 hours, I was finally admitted into the hospital. They sent me home earlier as I was only 3 cm dilated. This time, only 3 hours later, I was 7cm. Contractions were intense and less than a minute apart. I knew baby was coming soon! I was told by a nurse that there were 3 women also in labor that needed emergency c-sections so I should get an epidural for pain while I wait for the doctor. I agreed. Now that I wasn’t in pain, they left me in a room for 6 hours before letting me push.

Finally, I started pushing. 3 hours of pushing. Next thing I know, the doctor comes into the room for the first time. She said I have a fever, my baby is in distress and that I need to have an emergency c-section to save our lives. Of course I agreed! What did I know?!?

They rushed me into the OR. As they were prepping me, I felt everything. The epidural was not good enough for the surgery. The last thing I remember hearing was “someone put her the f*ck to sleep!!” I woke up alone in recovery. Not one person around. Finally I yelled loud enough to get someone’s attention. “Am I still pregnant?” I remember asking. The person that was there said “I don’t know.” It took what seemed like an hour for him to find someone that knew what happened.

My son was rushed to NICU, where he spent the first 12 hours of his life. Alone. My husband was allowed to see him briefly enough to take a picture to show me. Turns out, he was perfectly healthy! Even the NICU team wasn’t sure why he was there!! Protocols left my son alone. Ridiculous.

That medical team let me down. I did not receive the care I deserved.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Alex. Best wishes to you and your family!

Vijayalakshmi’s VBAC Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

Hi everyone, I’m Vijayalakshmi Durai Selvam.

It was my second delivery at Bloom. My first delivery was a C section at my native. Without any emergency, C section was done only because I crossed the due date. Also, we were not much aware of the delivery process. 

Now for the second baby, we thought to try normal delivery. Most of our relatives and friends said that since the first delivery was c-section it is impossible for normal delivery for the second one. We were confused to visit any hospital. By that time we came to know about Bloom through one of my colleagues. She had normal delivery after C section at Bloom. But still, we doubtfully visited Bloom for the first time. We met Dr. Kavitha Gautam and she understood our concern and motivated us that there is a chance for normal delivery since I have a 5 years gap after the first baby. 

We came to know about the classes conducted for pregnancy by Happy Mom and attended all the sessions conducted by Dr. Jayashree. We got a clear idea of what delivery is and the birth options during one of the classes. Till then we never realized normal and natural were two different types of delivery. After attending the classes we got confident that natural birth is possible after C section.  

After explaining all the birth options, Dr. Jayashree asked what type of delivery we opted for. Even my husband said that since it was C section we will be happy if it is a normal delivery. But still, Dr. Jayashree gave us full confidence and told that even Natural birth is possible. During the class, Dr. Jayashree prepared us both mentally and physically.

My due was on March 22nd, but there is no pain we went to the hospital for a checkup. They did a scan and CTG. The baby weight was 3.4kgs and CTG was normal. The doctor worried about the weight of the baby. Since the previous one was a C section. Hence, she told me to wait till next day afternoon otherwise she advised to admit on 23rd. Also, there was no pain. But we want to still wait for one more day having in mind that we could do a natural birth. On the second day of lockdown, 24th morning we again went to the hospital and took a scan. The baby weighed 3.7 kgs. The doctor told us to admit immediately but we told that we will be back at night. All of a sudden from evening baby initiated the process to combat and see the lockdown world. I was admitted to the hospital at 4:00 a.m the next day, 25th April.

The kid was too patient to come out who gave only 25% of the pain. Since the movements and heart rate of the fatal was normal the doctor gave us a deadline till 1:00 p.m as we requested her. Meanwhile, we started doing exercise with the heap of Dr. Jayashree. There was a better improvement in the progress. In the evening again Dr. Kavitha visited for an internal checkup and gave us time constraint till midnight. 

As advised by Dr. Jayashree we continued doing the suggested exercise and hard water bathing. In the meantime, the heartbeat of the fatal was monitored for every 15 minutes to make sure that the baby is safe. 

By 10 PM I got an immense pain and we thought that the time came to welcome the baby to the world, Yes I was taken to the labour room around 10:30 PM. Everyone expected that the baby will come within 2 hours since my sack broke around 10:45 PM. But the naughty kid made the process very slowly. I met Dr.Ramya for the first time that too in the labour room. She motivated and supported me until the end of delivery. Special thanks to you mam.  

Finally, the master decided to step-in to the word and came out at 4 am. With loads of joyful tears, we welcomed him. 

We would like to wholeheartedly thank Dr. Jayashree who was with us from the beginning till the end of delivery. Dr. Ramya for extending her full support during the labour. Dr. Kavitha for visiting us often, even at midnight, for respecting our decision, for giving us enough time for the natural birth and for monitoring the fatal’s condition till the end. All these happened during the lockdown is the unimaginable thing. 

I’m proud now to be an example of VBAC. It happened only because of the hope we had along with the coordination between the doctors, who had built a wonderful team. I still remember the positive words from the nurses, especially from sister Suganya. I am very thankful for my entire life to Dr.Jaishree and my hubby. Without their motivation and encouragement, this natural birth would have become only a dream to me after C section.

Congratulations, Vijayalakshmi, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Hilary’s Unassisted HBA2C Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

Birth Story: The unassisted home birth of Aspen Juliet after 2 cesareans

Back story: My first baby was a csection due to being breech. I simply didn’t know any better. I didn’t know that a breech baby can be born vaginally, even though I am a nurse. I went in to labor, labored at home as much as possible, and then went to the hospital and told them she was breech so I had to have a csection.

My second pregnancy, I was set on having a VBAC. I switched providers to hospital midwives in hopes that these midwives would give me better care during birth. (Spoiler, they were actually “medwives.”) I induced labor myself because I was impatient. Labor started nicely and we headed to the hospital once I felt that the pain was getting to be too much. At the hospital I labored some and eventually started using the nitrous gas for pain relief When my water broke, the pain intensified greatly. I said I couldn’t do it and I either wanted IV pain meds or the epidural. The nurse told me that the CRNA was available now and right outside my door and who knows when she would be available again to do the epidural. I felt pressured and caved and got the epidural. As I was getting the epidural, my body was pushing involuntarily. Of course once I got the epidural they laid me on my back, which I told them I didn’t want. Soon after I got the epidural, the baby went into distress. After 2 hours of baby having late heart decelerations they came in and informed me of the decelerations. They basically said at this point that my options were A) a csection or B) a csection.

I was fully effaced and fully dilated and baby was at 3+ station. They said baby was too high. They wouldn’t even allow me to push. (Not to mention that shift change was soon, but they would never admit that that was why they pushed for the c-section).

During this second c-section, I had a uterine window that ruptured during surgery. The incision also tore 5cm down to the cervix during surgery. After the c-section, the doctor told me that I could never have a vaginal birth.

With my third pregnancy, I would not take no for answer. I would get my VBA2C even if it was the last thing that I did. When I found out I was pregnant, I called every birthing center in the region in search of someone who would take me as a patient. I consulted with an OB doctor at 8 weeks pregnant while searching for a midwife.

After an extensive search without much luck, I finally found a birth center that would take me. At 21 weeks the midwife, my husband, and I went in for an anatomy scan with her attending physician (the same physician that I saw when I was 8 weeks pregnant.). This doctor was very nice but said that he was not comfortable with me birthing outside of the hospital because of my uterine window that ruptured during surgery with my second c-section and the 5cm tear of the incision also from the second c-section.

At this point the midwife said that she could not allow me to birth at the birth center. She was willing to do co-care with the OB doctor, but I had no interest in paying her $5000 plus paying the doctor’s fee and the hospital fee. By the way, the baby could not have looked more perfect on the anatomy scan, and the placenta was in the fundus which was great!

After this appointment, I started my search over and began looking for any midwife in the area who would take me as their patient. I interviewed with a midwife pair and we planned to birth in a hotel DIRECTLY across the street from the hospital. They too had the same overseeing OB doctor and he wasn’t okay with that option either. So I ended up seeing this OB doctor until I was 32 weeks pregnant. Around 28-30 weeks along, I started feeling God working on my heart, pushing me towards having my baby at home. God was telling me that everything would be okay. He was telling me that I could have the birth that my soul needed. After years of research on birth and VBAC I realized that my best chance at achieving my healing VBA2C birth would be at home, away from doctors and hospitals and unnecessary protocols and arbitrary timelines.

So I decided on an unassisted homebirth. It was the best decision I could have made! I was getting so tired of hearing people tell me what THEY were going to LET ME do with MY body. I decided to take charge of my own birth! My husband took lots of convincing, however. We had several discussions and arguments about my choice to birth at home. He was afraid of the what-if scenarios. I understood his fear but I knew that my unassisted home birth was something that I needed to do. I told him that I was having the baby at home whether he was there or not. I told him I’d love to have him there but his presence was not required. He told me he wouldn’t let me do it alone. So, we spent a lot of time preparing and specifically educating my husband so that he would feel prepared and not be fearful or panic during the birth.

Birth story: The gender was a surprise! Baby spent the entire third trimester head down on the right side (ROA) with occasional changes to either transverse or head down on the left side (LOA) but would go right back to ROA with spinning babies exercises.

On Thursday 10/17 I was 40 weeks and 4 days. Surges started around 11am. They were few and far between and I didn’t really realize they were there until about 1:45pm. I watched the Spinning Babies parent’s class video and did the calf lift exercise from the video quickly before I had to head to my chiropractor appointment. At the appointment I realized that baby was now on the left side (LOA). I was so thankful as I knew I was in early labor! Surges continued from every 15 minutes to every 45 minutes for the rest of the day. I went for a walk to the park with my husband and my kids to encourage the surges, doing curb walking there and back. We put the kids to bed and I watched the spinning babies video again with my husband. We did some of the exercises from the video to encourage engagement and dilation. I then went to bed at around 10:15pm.

Friday 10/18, 40 weeks 5 days.

Surges continued throughout the night, interrupting sleep, about every 12 minutes. I had to concentrate and breathe through the surges while sleeping in between them. I got up at 4:55am since the surges were simply getting too uncomfortable to lie down through anymore.The surges were about 5-8 minutes apart, and though they varied in intensity, they were not too intense.

Around 7:15am, my husband and I went out for breakfast. I had to breathe through the surges but again, they weren’t terrible and I was fine between them.

When we got back home, I went to the bathroom at 8:48am and saw that I had lost my mucus plug and that it had a strand of bloody show. Things were happening and I was excited!

After losing my plug, the surges spaced out some so I went to lay down and rest for a bit. At about 10:30am surges were 6-8 minutes apart and started picking up in intensity. I was supposed to let the photographer know when surges were 3-5 minutes apart, so we weren’t there yet.

I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could to get baby to engage and dilate the cervix and do all the right maneuvers to have the perfect home birth. My husband found a link on the Spinning Babies website about doing a maneuver called the abdominal lift and tuck where you and a partner lift your abdomen up and inward with your hands while kind of tucking in your butt for 10 surges. I ate a chicken sandwich to recharge my energy, it was delicious, and then we did the abdominal lift and tucks for 11 surges since we kept missing some when I would go to the bathroom. I would go to the bathroom after each surge so that my bladder wouldn’t get in baby’s way. We started the abdominal lift and tucks at about noon. Those surges were getting pretty intense but all was still well between the surges, and they were still about 6 minutes apart. (I believe they were likely closer together than I realized since I wasn’t tracking the surges I was having in the bathroom because I had left my phone in the other room).

After that, I saw a video that in order to ensure that baby descends during labor, do lunges with your left leg lifted on a chair (if baby is in the LOA position) during surges So I did that for a couple more surges.

Then at 1:13 I lost some more plug. At 1:18 I had some very light leaking of translucent, odorless, pink-tinged fluid. There was a small trickle with the next surge. My water broke! I texted my photographer to come and had my husband start filling the birth tub.

While my husband was in the other room working on getting the pool filled, it became quite clear that This Was It! I was about to have my baby! I realized that I would not get the water birth that I wanted and I would not get this sweet labor or birth on video like I had longed for! But there wasn’t time for me to care about that. I was about to have my baby!

I was leaning into my husband and then got on the floor on my knees leaning over our ottoman. With each surge I SCREAMED and screamed and clawed at my husband’s arm as my body pushed and I pushed with it. Between the surges, I begged God to help me and had my husband give me cold water to drink and had him put the cold water on my face and neck. It was incredible to feel my baby coming down through the birth canal. As the baby was crowning I could feel all the tearing and pain. I reached down and felt with my hand. To me it did not feel like a head. It felt too slimy and squishy. I told my husband to look. He said he didn’t know what it was. I told him to tell me what it looked like. He said he thought it might be the cord. I told him to get me a mirror so I could look. He brought a mirror attached to a huge picture frame that would never work. I knew it wasn’t an arm or a leg. I thought then maybe it was the placenta. I told him to call 911. (We were both clearly too dumb to have him take a picture but that is neither here nor there haha). I never truly believed that what I was feeling was the placenta, since the placenta had been in the fundus the entire pregnancy and baby had been head down and engaged, but in the throes of labor I was not thinking clearly and I didn’t want to take any chances.

My husband called 911 as I continued to scream and push. Just then, the photographer showed up, and I yelled at her to come and tell me if it was the head or not.

Well of course, it was the head! She said “The head is out!” I kept pushing. The photographer told me to grab the baby but I told her I couldn’t grab the baby. I was working so hard to push baby out and holding myself up on the ottoman. I kept pushing and out came baby, head first and perfect!

The photographer actually caught the baby from behind me (which of course was not the plan but we improvised) and handed the baby to my husband. They then passed the baby up to me. I grabbed the baby and looked to see the gender. A girl!!! I couldn’t believe that I had just pushed out my baby and that she was a girl! It was AMAZING!!!

The ambulance showed up just after baby was born and checked us both out. She was absolutely perfect and I was a successful, victorious birth warrior! The placenta came about 10 to 15 minutes after she was born.

Aspen Juliet was born at 1:57pm, weighing about 10 lbs, 20 inches long, after about 35 minutes of pushing! We were so blessed to have a beautiful, healing, restorative, cleansing home vaginal birth and to have a completely healthy and perfect little squishy baby!

We did decide to go to the hospital to get checked out. I had some extensive tears that were bleeding and that needed to be stitched. We were going to go to the hospital anyway to get checked out in hopes that that would make getting a birth certificate and Social Security card easier for baby.

So we didn’t get the much anticipated water birth and we didn’t get the actual birth on film like I REALLY wanted, BUT I got to have my triumphant, healing, cleansing, restorative vaginal birth that I knew in my soul that I could have!

Congratulations, Hilary, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Lauren’s CBAC Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

My labour started on the 18th of February after a week of pre- labour, I presented to MFAU that evening to get an idea of where things were at, I had a VE and speculum that confirmed amniotic fluid and that I was 1cm and fully effaced. I went home to labour.

Rough night as things picked up, when the shower and counter pressure were no longer able to soothe me I decided to head back to birth suite at 9am on the 19th.

Got gas, fitball and shower going, enjoyed this combo for close to 5 hrs. Partner was incredible applying counter pressure whenever I needed. Had a VE @ 3pm and was 4-5cm dilated with bulging waters. Waters were broken and things quickly escalated, returned to shower where meconium in waters came out. Had everyone panicked about baby but I knew she was okay. Intermittent Doppler continued.

Pain went through the roof when my body started to push too early and I could not bear the intense pressure anymore, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting too swollen so got an epidural at which point a scalpel clip was placed ensuring baby was happy too. 

I was checked at 9pm and fully dilated, I pushed for 3 hours before OB recommended forceps assisted delivery. I wasn’t keen and actually resisted any decision making for close to 2hrs.

We got to theatre after 2am on the 20th. When I was laid on the table baby moved, she had moved from halfway down the birth canal to back up and transverse. Perhaps she sensed something.

Decision was made to proceed with a c section.

Adelaide Claire was born 2:42am on the 20th.

Healthy and happy 9lbz 11oz AGPARS 10 and 10.

It was after being shown my daughter over the curtain that things turned to me, my BP dropped to 50/25. I lost 3.5 litres of blood. The senior OB who had decided to hang back just in case jumped in and let me and hubby know what was happening, he advised my scar had ruptured when they went to get her out but I’d also ruptured vertically through my cervix and most of my vagina. At this point they were bringing baby over to me I yelled out “no, take her to my mum” hubby looked at me held my hand and reassured me he wasn’t going anywhere. We had agreed to let baby go to my mum should anything happen. 

I was shaking uncontrollably the whole time from the epidural and felt calm and numb from the low blood pressure. Unknown to me at the time I was being jabbed in my arms all over they had to access an artery in my arm to get an accurate reading of BP. By this stage two units of blood arrived for me, hubby was asked to manually assist the transfusions. All senior consultants were being called in to assist. Hubby was then told I needed to go under general anesthesia ASAP. We kissed and he left. Just before going under I turned to the anaesthetist and asked her to just make sure I wake up.

After 4 hours I was out of surgery and taken to ICU, intubated and my hubby and mum kissed me and went home to sleep.

I woke in ICU at 8:30am. 

I have never been so happy to open my eyes.

While my experience after birth was traumatic, I still had an empowering, positive TOLAC. I wouldn’t have done anything differently. 

Congratulations, Lauren, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Bonni’s Family Centered Cesarean Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

My first pregnancy was scary; delivery became a “non-emergency emergency” as they put it, when I rolled into L&D after a massive bleed 3 days before my scheduled csection due to complete placenta previa. After GD, high risk appts, MRI, along with weekly ultrasounds, the delivery of my first daughter haunted me after they whisked her off to the NICU for “observation” for 24 hrs, and I never once get to touch her and sat alone in recovery until my husband could pop by to give updates. She joined us a day later, sleepy and late preterm, and we marched forward with breastfeeding issues and lack of sleep. Newborn life carried on – she’s healthy as can be. 

So for my second pregnancy, we were hopeful for a VBAC. Boom – placenta previa *again*. It cleared. Boom – GD *again* I am not prediabetic, but figured same result. So, I braced myself for a CBAC, in case. The fetus (we were team green) never turned head down. My high risk doc said something was wrong in my body and the “baby knew”. Not reassuring. I broke down outside my appointment calling my husband sobbing: we could try something like burning incense, maxabustion, by my toe and acupuncture (had no effect, but was relaxing), but due to my tilted cervix and irregular uterus, another c-section was in my future. 

We scheduled the c-section for 39 weeks; made arrangements to have someone with me in recovery, if this baby needed NICU, too, someone to look after our toddler, etc. When we rolled into the cold OR just after 8AM, it was a party. The music was good, everyone was chatting. When I heard the first cry, I cried. When they showed her to us and played “Isn’t She Lovely” announcing she was a girl, I sighed.

I waited to hear as she was assessed to see if she didn’t need NICU for what seemed like hours, and when they laid her on my chest, all I could do was touch her little nose as I was in disbelief. I cried and felt relief wash over me. My family was complete, and this squishy face was safe in my arms.

Later, my OB told me that I had a uterine window larger than she’d ever seen. She said by not turning, and not experiencing labor, that baby saved our lives. Our gentle c-section was as good as a surgery could be. We laughed and I was able to have closure with my family’s birth experience, something I wasn’t sure was possible.

Congratulations, Bonni, and thank you for sharing your story!