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Episode 299 Katie's Healing VBAC + Home Birth Transfer
Description
Katie joins us today to tell us about her two birth experiences in Germany. Although she strongly advocated for herself during her first birth, Katie was extremely mistreated. Her labor and horrible C-section experience left her with intense PTSD straining her relationship with both her baby and her husband.
Katie knew that if she wanted to have another baby, she had to plan for an out-of-hospital birth. She continued to advocate for herself by not only learning the evidence but by showing it to providers and defending it. Though she wasn’t able to find a supportive backup hospital, Katie labored beautifully at home with her husband, doula, and midwife until she knew it was time to transfer.
When she transferred, Katie was able to go to the hospital she wanted to go to and was finally treated with respect. Her wishes were honored and she felt heard. Though this labor was also over 40 hours and had its own unexpected twists, Katie experienced so much healing from her VBAC. She was able to achieve the glorious feeling she hoped she would have from a home birth even in the hospital.
Evidence-Based Birth Blog: Friedman Curve
Informed Pregnancy - code: vbaclink424
How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents
Full Transcript under Episode Details
04:41 Review of the Week
07:27 Katie’s stories
11:14 Start of labor
16:55 Going to the hospital
20:22 Interventions
29:44 Katie’s C-section
32:06 Preparing for VBAC
34:34 Second pregnancy
42:01 Labor begins
47:11 Getting support from her birth team
50:12 Transferring to the hospital
53:32 Feeling intense scar pain
56:23 Asking for the vacuum
58:42 Katie’s advice for listeners
1:01:47 The Friedman Curve
1:06:16 Trusting your intuition
1:08:56 Doula support
Meagan: Hello, Women of Strength! We have a story for you today where a mama gave birth in Germany. So I love, love, love when we have out-of-the-country birth stories because we often get messages from people outside of the country wondering if VBAC is still possible and the answer is YES. 100% it is possible and we have our friend Katie today. Hello, Katie!
Katie: Hi.
Meagan: She is going to just be sharing her story showing that it is possible to VBAC. Now, one of the things that I actually really love about Katie’s story is that it shows that things can change, and even when things change it doesn’t have to be bad. I sit in that because I personally wanted to birth out of the hospital and when I was in labor, in my mind, if I had to transfer, I was for a little while telling myself that that was a bad thing. And that it wouldn’t happen, or people would be looking down, or whatever.
I was spiraling. I was just going through a moment in labor. But something that stood out to me with Katie’s, is she talks about how after a really