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Episode 359 Flannery's VBAC with a Bicornuate Uterus + Types of Uterine Abnormalities
Description
Flannery joins us today from Connecticut sharing her story of an unexpected C-section at 35 weeks due to oligohydramnios, breech presentation, and concerns with her baby’s kidney functions. She was also transferred to an unfamiliar hospital for its surgical capabilities. Though she was terrified, her anesthesiologist was calm and reassuring.
The toughest memory of Flannery’s birth was not being able to kiss her baby before he was swept away to the NICU. She was determined to do everything in her power not to have that happen again the second time.
Knowing she had a bicornuate uterus, she worked hard to keep her baby’s head down from the very beginning of her second pregnancy. She switched to a midwife practice, carried her baby past her due date, went into spontaneous labor, and had an intensely beautiful unmedicated hospital VBAC!
How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents
Full Transcript under Episode Details
Meagan: Hello, everybody. We have our friend from Connecticut. And you know what? I didn’t ask. How do you say your name?
Flannery: It’s Flannery.
Meagan: That’s how I was going to say it.
Flannery: Yes, good job.
Meagan: We have our friend, Flannery, here from Connecticut and she has a bicornuate uterus. This week’s focus is on different shaped uteruses or uterine abnormalities as I’m air quoting. We know that people have them. People have different-shaped uteruses.
Sometimes that can impact things like breech babies or even a provider’s ability to support– I don’t want to say ability. It’s their willingness to support, especially in VBAC. We’re going to be diving into that. She’s also a NICU mama so for other NICU mamas, she might have some tips for you along the way.
She just told me before this that she was a labor and delivery nurse before she had her first.
Flannery: Yep, and then I switched over.
Meagan: Now she switched over to postpartum. She knows the field, so we might talk a little bit about labor and delivery nursing and the postpartum world.
Flannery: Yeah, definitely.
Meagan: Awesome.
Okay, well let’s get into your stories.
Flannery: Okay, thank you. I’m so excited. I would listen to this podcast all the time when I was pregnant. At the end, when they say, “If you’d like to share your VBAC story–” and I would say, “I will be sharing my VBAC stories someday.”
Meagan: I love that. “I will be sharing my story”, and here you are sharing with all of the other Women of Strength coming to learn and grow and feel empowered.
Flannery: Yeah, I loved it.
My first pregnancy was actually an unplanned pregnancy. I had just gotten married. I just started a labor and delivery nurse job. I was noticing that I wasn’t feeling great, that I had some bleeding which I thought was my period, so I just was like, “You know what? Le