Episode 362 Marlene's VBA3C + Fighting for Healing
Marlene joins us from California sharing her journey to a VBAC after three C-sections. She was a teenager with her first, and her doctor suggested scheduling an elective C-section for convenience. Marlene didn’t even know what a C-section was. She became more educated with each birth experience. Still, when it came time to advocate for her physiological VBA3C birth, there were no hospitals, doctors, midwives, or doulas who would support her. Marlene decided to free birth at home with her husband. During labor, she made the call to transfer to the hospital. She arrived at 9.5 centimeters dilated and pushed her healthy baby out in just two pushes. Though she experienced resistance all along the way, Marlene kept fighting for the vaginal birth she knew she could achieve! Marlene's Doula Website: Designed to Birth How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents Full Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello, Women of Strength. We are a week away from Christmas. I just cannot get over how fast this year has gone and how many incredible stories we have heard. I cannot wait to hear more stories next year. Today’s story is a VBA3C story. These are stories that we get requests for daily. On Instagram, we get people writing us saying, “I need more stories of VBAC after multiple Cesareans. Is VBAC after two Cesareans possible?” Yes. The answer is yes. We have Marlene here with us. Hello, Marlene. Marlene: Hello. Meagan: She’s going to be sharing her story just showing you how possible birth is. We have a Review of the Week. We’re going to get into that, then we are going to turn the time over to Marlene. This review is by Rachel, and it says, “11 out of 10. Would be best friends with these ladies.” I love that. You guys, we feel like we are best friends, too. Even though we haven’t met half of you, we just love this community so much. We feel like we are best friends. It says, “Amazingly knowledgeable doulas with a passion for compassion and birth. Funny, kind, smart. Specialized in VBAC. If humans are exiting your body, you want them by your side.” I love that. That is such a fun review. Thank you so much for your review You guys, if you have not yet, please help us kick off the 2025 season with some new reviews. You can go to Google and just type in “The VBAC Link” and you can leave us a review there, or you can leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Meagan: Okay, Marlene. Welcome to the show. Marlene: Thank you. Meagan: I’m so happy that you are here and excited to hear more details about these journeys of yours that led you to the final VBAC after 3 C-section point. Marlene: Yeah. Sorry if I say “like” or “um” so much because I’ve been on a few podcasts, and it never gets easier. For some reason, I am always so nervous. Meagan: It is hard. This is episode 300 and something, and I still say “like” and “um”. It happens. Listeners, just know it happens. Picture yourself sharing your story and thinking about what you’re sharing and who you’re sharing it too and what you need to share for them. It just happens. “Um” slips out. Marlene: Okay. So, I’ll get started. I really want to tell my VBAC after 3 C-sections, so my fourth story, but I will get into a little bit of my first three because that paints the picture of how I had my VBAC after 3 C-sections. I was 18 when I had my first. My son is now 15. He’s going to be 16 in November. Man, time flies. Meagan: Oh my goodness. It really does. Marlene: Yeah. I grew up in the LA area in Norwolk, so the outskirts of LA. I grew up with my grandparents because my parents were drug addicts and in and out of jail. The social workers took us and put us with my grandparents. There were 7 of us. We were fortunate to be together with family and my grandparents. My parents came when I was 16. I’m the youngest of 7. My parents came when I was 16 years old in the middle of my junior year of high school and were like, “We’re clean. We want to take you back.” My grandparents were old. They already raised all of their kids, and they raised all of us, so they were like, “Just go.” They were tired. I understood, so I was like, “Okay.” I went with my parents. They moved me about an hour away from all of my friends and all of my family. It was just us. Probably a year later or 6-8 months later, they started doing their stuff again. I got pregnant. I didn’t have anybody to ask. I wasn’t educated. I didn’t know. I was just like, “I’m pregnant. I’m going to go to the free clinic. I’m going to go to the doctor.” Being a sheep, this is what we do. I go to the doctor and the free clinic. My pregnancy was fine. My son was fine. I’m fine. There were no complications. It was a beautiful, good pregnancy, but towards 38 weeks, on my 38-week appointment, my OB/GYN was like, “Aren’t you so uncomfortable? Wouldn’t you want to have your baby on your due date? Most first-time moms go to 42 weeks.” In my head, I was uncomfortable. I was super swollen, but I didn’t have preeclampsia. He didn’t even mention preeclampsia or anything, but my ankles and my legs were probably 3-4 times the size of normal. I was very uncomfortable. I had back pains and stuff. He was like, “You want to have your baby on your due date?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He was like, “Okay. Let’s schedule you for you C-section on November 12th.” Meagan: Wait! Marlene: I didn’t even know what a C-section was, and not even an induction. Now that I think about it, no. It was straight to a C-section and I’m over here like, okay. I didn’t even know what a C-section was. I thought this is how the process was. I was just so uneducated. I trusted him. I was like, he was the “expert”. He knows best, so I’m just going to trust him. I showed up at the hospital on the time and date that he said. They prepped me for a C-section. Meagan: Wow. Marlene: Yeah. Now, in hindsight, now that I know, I’m like, that’s crazy. I could have probably sued him or something, but anyway. 4.5 years later, I’m 23 years old. I get pregnant again, and I didn’t educate myself still. I was young and living the party life. I was not really caring and not educating myself. I did plan this one though. The first one was unplanned. My girl was planned. We planned to have her, but I still didn’t educate myself. I just knew I wanted a VBAC because I wanted to experience birth the way women are naturally supposed to. I just went. I went to a different OB/GYN in a different city. I came back to Norwolk because I’m an adult, and I have my own place now. I went to my sister’s OB/GYN. She was like, “Oh, he’s good.” I’m like, “Okay.” I just go with him. He was fine. I actually got to go into spontaneous labor this time at least at 39 weeks. My water broke, and straight to the hospital I went. Meagan: Yeah. Marlene: I just went straight to the hospital because that’s what I was told to do. I got there, and my pregnancy was fine. There were no complications or anything. I got there, and they were like, “Okay. You’re not even dilated, but we’ll keep you here since your water is broken.” They let me labor. I didn’t feel anything. 12 hours passed, and they were like, “Oh, there’s a risk of infection. We have to get this baby out. There is failure to progress,” blah, blah, blah, and this stuff. I’m like, okay. I trusted them again, so they gave me another C-section. 6 years later, so this is 2019 right before the pandemic, I got pregnant. It was probably actually 2018 because I had my second daughter in August 2019. I got pregnant, and I was like, “This time, I’m a little more educated.” I found the Free Birth Society. I was listening, and decided to do more research. My husband opened my eyes to, “Oh, we shouldn’t be vaccinating our kids.” He had been telling me before, but I was like, no. I was so brainwashed. My family is more medical-minded and stuff. Now, I’m the total opposite. My husband opened my eyes to things. I started doing more research. I can’t just trust the doctors now and stuff. Now, I’m in Fresno, California when I was pregnant. I searched high and low for a good, VBAC-supportive OB/GYN, and a lot of them told me, “No, we can’t do a VBAC after two C-sections.” This one told me that we could do it. She was truly VBAC supportive. I got to decline all of the things. I didn’t even do the diabetes test. I didn’t really do anything except for a little bit of bloodwork. I declined everything, and she was okay with it. Then she told me, “You don’t have to have a C-section. You could try for a VBAC, but I might not be the doctor who is on call. Who’s to say that the doctor who is on call is going to be VBAC supportive.” She said, “Just to warn you, you might have to stand your ground, and fight for your VBAC and stuff.” I was like, “Thank you for being straightforward with me.” My water did break. I went into spontaneous labor again. I went to the hospital right after again. I mean, it wasn’t as fast this time. I took a shower. I ate dinner, and maybe an hour or two later, I went to the hospital. I didn’t get a VBAC-supportive doctor. The whole time after I got there, she was like, “Okay, you can try for a VBAC.” She was telling me all of these things that I can’t do. “You haven’t done it before. What makes you think you can do it again?” Just all of this stuff. This time, I did feel contractions. I was in labor longer than 12 hours, but after the 12 hours, she started saying, “Oh, infection.” I had to keep fighting them off, the nurses, and the doctors. I was exhausted from labor. I believe I got to 6 centimeters or so. Those contractions were pretty hard. She just was like, “Oh, I’m about to switch shifts. Don’t you want me since you’ve alrea
