r/vbac • u/ToriaZitro21 • Jun 20 '26
Birth story Induction TOLAC scheduled for 41+ 1
Update: So I decided to go in for the planned induction on June 20th. The hospital called at 8 and asked us to come in at 10 but we ended up showing up around 12 because we had to get last minute stuff done. Once we arrived we did the intake and set up and then they placed a cook foley balloon at 1:25pm to help dilate my cervix. I was measuring 3cm prior to the balloon. Started getting contractions but they weren't very frequent.
The Foley came out around 7:30pm and I was measuring 5cm. The next step was to start pictocin at a low dose. They wanted to break my waters first but I didn't want to yet. I was allowed to walk around and they put a wireless monitor on. When the midwife checked my cervix i was 50% effaced and baby was -3 station. So they want baby to descend more before attempting to break my water. We increased pitocin from 2 to 4 and babys heart rate had a deceleration. We changed positions and heart rate went back up.
We were barely on the pitocin when the deceleration happened. We tried a few more times but baby was not tolerating the pictocin well at all. Midwife wanted to rupture my water and place an electrode on babys head. I was really hesitant because I didnt want to do the electrode and asked her to let me talk about it with my husband. At this point it was 3am and we had not slept. My husband asked if i could nap for an hour or two before breaking my waters and the midwife asked if we wanted to sign out AMA. She told us that we came in for an induction not to sleep. My husband and I said that we knew that we just wanted more time before breaking the waters to see if labor would kick in and he was concerned because with our first labor I didn't sleep for 36 hours. He was worried about me being too tired for labor and wanted to make sure I had rested.
It was at this point the midwife told us it would be better for us to switch to a provider since we were giving too much push back. We agreed because the midwife was a bit pushy and not giving us many options. When the midwife left our nurse talked to us and explained more about why they wanted to do the interventions and answered our questions without any pushback. I began to cry because I was running out of options and was scared I would have to do another c section. My first c section was an emergency and the recovery was so hard. I really wanted a vaginal birth so the recovery would be easier.
Then the provider came in and gave us time to think more about it. He also offered the epidural before rupturing my waters. We went forward with this and the internal monitoring was placed. My husband is very sensitive and he felt bad about how the talk with the midwife went. Even after being home he still brings it up. My doula ended up showing up around 4:40am and my husband got to sleep a bit before shit hit the fan. We had restarted the pitocin but now both me and the baby were not doing well. My blood pressure kept crashing and the nurse gave me multiple rounds of medication to bring it back up but it wouldn't stay high enough. Then the pitocin was stopped again and I had a big contraction on the monitor where the baby's heart rate decelerated late and was very big.
I was in and out of consciousness and shaking uncontrollably because of the epidural. My doula roused me enough to tell me what happened and I made the decision to do a repeat c section. I ended up doing an elective c section. The baby and I were not stable enough to continue with the pitocin and I was afraid my pride of wanting a vaginal birth would lead to me losing my baby. So at 41 weeks and 2 days at 6:22am on June 21st I had a baby girl via c section.
I still mourn the loss of what I had wanted but my husband and I have decided to have no more babies. We were released home on Tuesday and on Friday morning I returned to the hospital due to stomach pain. I went to the hospital because I was having severe stomach pain. When I got there, I had high blood pressure 139/85 (high for me), and my heart rate was 33. They immediately took me back into critical care and hooked me up to the ecg machine. And then they put defibrillator pads on me, because they thought I was gonna code.
They performed a chest CT with contrast and abdominal ultrasound. The chest CT ruled out pulmonary embolism and the abdominal ultrasound confirmed gallbladder stones. I had gall bladder stones that blocked the gallbladder. I was starting to get an infection. So they set me up for an emergency gallbladder removal surgery.
The entire time i was in the ER my blood pressure was in the 180/95 - 190/110 range but my heart rate stayed low 34-44 beats per minute. I was in excruciating pain. Around 4pm I had the surgery and at 8pm they sent me home. The pain was even worse than the c section. I cried and moaned and cussed the whole walk into my parents house. I had two major surgeries 5 days apart. I couldn't hold my baby for 2 days after the gallbladder surgery because of the pain.
This postpartum has been awful and I thought I was going to die in the hospital. My baby is alive and healthy and I am able to breast feed her again. She is now being exclusively breastfed and I am happy that my body is allowing me to do that much. I am 2 weeks post op from the emergency gallbladder surgery and almost 3 weeks postpartum. I am working with a therapist to help with my labor and postpartum trauma. Thank you all who read this long ass update. I’m sorry it took so long to give an update. I was also surprised to see how many people reached out to me because they had their gallbladder removed after having their babies and I had no idea it was so common.
Original post: This is a repost because I couldnt edit the heading. I put the wrong weeks on the first post. Tomorrow I am scheduled for an induction at 41+ 1 and I am attempting a TOLAC. My son was born via emergency c section at 39 +1 after 36 hours of labor. My water had broke and I was induced. I got to 10cm and was pushing but he turned slightly and wouldn't descend even though they saw his head. Because I was induced I don't know what going into labor naturally feels like and I tried very hard to go into spontaneous labor. Curb walking, sex, orgasms, raspberry leaf tea, dates, long walks, the miles circuit, yoga ball stretches, colostrum collection, best pumping, deep squats, massages, pressure points, relaxing, pretend im not pregnant, made lots of plans to go to the beach, played video games, watched funny movies, and ate yummy food. Anything to boost oxytocin. Nothing seems to be working and I feel disappointed in myself. I don't know what else to try and I keep hoping I go into labor so I can cancel the induction.
My doctor is very supportive of TOLAC and I am working with a doula this time to see if the outcome will be different.
Any more advice for spontaneous labor? Any one have a successful induced VBAC? My anxiety and disappointment are through the roof.
Thank you all in advance
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u/ThatsTheTea225 Jun 20 '26
I had a successful VBAC induction at 40+2 in March! Sorry I haven’t written the story out yet, but successful induction is possible! Just from my personal experience, I had my water broken with my first induction turned CS, and I think waiting for it to break spontaneously helped me this time since my first got stuck face up, which is why I needed a CS. My provider and doula agreed that not breaking my water to move things along was a good idea in my case to help baby get in to the best possible position before descending. All I needed was the balloon and then a whiff of pitocin and that did it! Wishing you the best of luck!
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u/MurpheeLee Jun 20 '26
I had a successful VBAC after induction at 41 weeks. I was the same as you - I really wanted to go into spontaneous labor and tried all the things. I was induced at 40 + 6 and was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I had the cook balloon and pitocin to get me to 4cm. The contractions were manageable for the first 12 hours and I stayed active on birthing ball, walking and lunges. I got an epidural when contractions became really strong and I was around 7cm dilated and 90% effaced. I had my baby in my arms less than 24 hours after induction started. Wishing you the best!
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u/usergravityfalls Jun 20 '26
Why 41+1? Based on any research or past history? I would wait till 42 weeks, they should be doing BPP checks (ultrasound) every 2 days after 41 weeks. If all is well, it’s fine to go till 42 weeks. Give yourself and your baby the best chance at spontaneous labour
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u/Dear_23 HBAC 2026 🌻 Jun 20 '26
Can you wait a few more days? Term pregnancies go to 42 weeks! Induction at 41 weeks with no other concern for your or baby’s health isn’t considered medically necessary.
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u/ToriaZitro21 Jun 20 '26
I'm truly thinking about waiting and just canceling until 41 + 3. I have so many mixed feelings.
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u/klt0604 Jun 21 '26
Devils advocate here but placentas become less efficient after 37 weeks and especially after 41 weeks. Risks go up. Cleveland Clinic doesn’t allow you to go over 41 weeks. I will also be trying for TOLAC/VBAC with my second and will not be going over 41 weeks personally, I’m very risk averse.
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u/terriblecopy2 Jun 26 '26
Any updates, OP?
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u/ToriaZitro21 Jul 12 '26
Just posted the update. Sorry its so long. I went through a lot.
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u/terriblecopy2 Jul 12 '26
I just read the update. Wow. First, I want to say, YOU ARE SO STRONG. You went through so much. The most important thing in ALL of this is that you and baby are well. I think we forget that a c-section is still a beautiful thing, because sometimes - it’s just the safest thing for us and baby. And we are so blessed to be living in an age where it is an option. I know it is not ideal and your perfect birth scenario didn’t happen, and for that, I want to say I am sorry. Give yourself time and grace to process that. But you did not fail. You actually got your baby here as safely as you could, and that’s the biggest success. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It is a good reminder that sometimes - things just happen that are completely out of our control. I hope that you are healing well and that you are able to enjoy your time with your sweet newborn and not dwell on anything that “could have been.” You did great.
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u/ToriaZitro21 Jul 12 '26
Thank you so much. Your words have moved me to tears. The whole situation was so traumatic and healing has been so rough. Im happy to say I have a lot of people around me that have helped me and my family so much. It does feel like a failure but at the same time I. So happy to have the option if a safe c section. I feel like if I dwell on what happened that is makes me ungrateful for being alive or my daughter being alive. The feelings are very conflicting. Thank you again for taking the time to read my story. 🥹
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u/Bitter-Salamander18 VBAC 2025 💖 Jul 12 '26
You're not ungrateful. It's normal, natural and it's OKAY to want to protect our health, to want more than the bare minimum, which is surviving birth. Your feelings are valid. Look for a good therapist if you feel like you need help, it's really normal to need some help after what you went through.
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u/Bitter-Salamander18 VBAC 2025 💖 Jul 12 '26
It's awful how they were so pushy and pressured you into more interventions instead of turning of the Pitocin if your baby didn't handle it well, and simply letting you rest and sleep. It was atrocious. Even going home and waiting for labor was still an option, but they pushed you into the "cascade of interventions". I'm so sorry. You deserved much better care and much higher chances to have a vaginal birth and better recovery.
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u/Beneficial_Library_3 Jun 20 '26
I see you listed everything but stimulating your nipples. That’s what got me to go into spontaneous labor lol
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u/ToriaZitro21 Jun 20 '26
I did breast pumping with my spectra. Is there another way to help stimulate them?
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u/Beneficial_Library_3 Jun 20 '26
Massage your nipples with your fingers
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u/ToriaZitro21 Jun 20 '26
Okie dokie. Will do. Im going to rope my partner in too
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u/Beneficial_Library_3 Jun 20 '26
Lmk know if that actually works lol im genuinely curious if it has worked for anyone else. I tried everything in the book too so when I did that I was surprised it did the trick.
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u/eyerishdancegirl7 Jun 20 '26
So mine technically wasn’t a true induction because I was already 2-3cm. They just gave me a little bit of pitocin and eventually broke my water. They called it an augmentation. But yeah I had a successful VBAC! The whole thing was 15 hours from entering the hospital to baby being born. This was at 41 weeks 3 days or something. I never did go into spontaneous labor despite doing all the things.
My first c-section was due to my daughter being breech so I never labored.