Episode 278 Rebecca's CBAC + What To Do With a Swollen Cervix

We love hearing stories of how our Women of Strength navigate birth in an empowered way, no matter the outcome. Rebecca’s story shows how she carefully selected the most supportive homebirth midwife, created a safe birth space in her home, labored hard and beautifully with her husband, took time to process information, assessed her situation, and consented to her second Cesarean when the time felt right to her. 

Meagan also talks about the different types of positioning and some signs that your baby might be in a less-than-ideal position. Rebecca and Meagan discuss tips and tricks to help prevent a swollen cervix and what options you have if that happens to you!

Additional Links

Needed Website

How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents

Full Transcript under Episode Details 

Timestamp Topics

01:54 Review of the Week

04:31 Rebecca’s first pregnancy

07:25 Consenting to an unexpected C-section for breech presentation

8:53 Fertility Fridays

11:02 Sparked interest in VBAC and getting pregnant again

13:53 Planning for a HBAC

18:00 Tachycardia and GBS positive

21:27 Early labor

24:18 Calling the team

30:10 Laboring through the night

39:02 Making the decision to transfer

44:53 Consenting to a C-section

46:43 Tips for when things don’t go as planned

50:43 Signs of wonky positioning

53:31 What to do

57:00 Why you shouldn’t skip the repeat Cesarean stories

Meagan: Hello, hello. It is Meagan with another amazing story on The VBAC Link podcast. Thank you so much for listening to us, you guys. I love this community. I know I talk about it. I know it’s weird that I don’t even know you, but I love you. I love you so much and I’m so glad that you are here with us today. 

We have our guest today from, let’s see, Virginia. I think it’s Virginia. That’s what my mind is saying. 

Rebecca: Yep. 

Meagan: This is Rebecca, so welcome, Rebecca. 

Rebecca: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m really excited. 

Meagan: Absolutely. Me too. Her story, you guys, today is a repeat Cesarean story so if you didn’t know on The VBAC Link, we do share repeat Cesarean stories because they are important to share as well. I’m excited for you to share more about your story and we’re going to talk a little bit about swelling of the cervix at the end of this episode because this is something that we see and is a little bit of a part of your story. 

01:54 Review of the Week

Before we dive into the story and all of the things, we of course want to share a Review of the Week. This review is from shotsie3 and it says, “Amazing is not a strong enough word.” That is really awesome. I love that. 

It says, “I cannot say enough good things about The VBAC Link. Listening to this podcast not only saved my mental health but gave me the knowledge and confidence to take control of my second pregnancy. After my home birth turned into a hospital transfer and Cesarean with my first child, I felt broken. When I unexpectedly found out I was pregnant just 7 months postpartum, I felt scared and lost. I was afraid of failing again and doubted my body’s ability to birth naturally, but I knew I absolutely could not have another Cesarean so I started obsessively researching VBAC. That’s when I found The VBAC Link. I’ve been binging episodes ever since. Listening to these stories has been incredible. Each episode is like giving a shot of confidence into the arm.” 

Oh, I love that. A shot of confidence into the arm. We’re giving you guys a little vaccine of confidence. 

It says, “Both my midwives and doulas have commented on how far my mental prep has come and I know it’s all thanks to The VBAC Link. Julie and Meagan have given me lots of tools and resources to control my birth.” 

I love that. Control your birth. 

“I am now looking forward to welcoming my second child via HBAC in just five short weeks. I want to shout it from the rooftop, ‘EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO THE VBAC LINK!’”

This review was a little while ago, so shotsie3, if you are still listening with us, which we hope you are, email us. Let us know how your birth went. 

04:31 Rebecca’s first pregnancy

Meagan: Okay, cute Rebecca, thank you so much for being here with us today. 

Rebecca: Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m really excited to share. 

Meagan: Absolutely. Well, I’d love to turn the time over to you. 

Rebecca: All right, well I guess I’ll start with just a little recap of my daughter’s birth who is my first C-section. My daughter was born in January of 2021. We got pregnant with her during kind of the height of COVID. That pregnancy went really smoothly other than it was COVID times so of course, my husband couldn’t come to any of the appointments or anything like that. 

I didn’t really do much prep with her because I wasn’t going to go to a birth class. There weren’t a lot of resources available. All I really did was watch some YouTube videos. I kind of knew I wanted to try to have a natural birth, but I didn’t prepare that much for it really. I read Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth and stuff, but I didn’t do too much preparation. 

She went to 41 weeks with no complications. I didn’t want to be induced, so my OB was like, “We’ll go to 41 weeks and then we’ll bring you in for an NST and an ultrasound.” So we went in on January 10th for her NST. She passed that with flying colors and I had asked them if they would give me a membrane sweep before they would induce me. They said they could try that, so they were going to come in and give me the membrane sweep, but luckily, one of the doctors there was like, “Well, let’s do her ultrasound first just to make sure that everything’s fine because that just makes sense before going down there and doing the membrane sweeps.” 

They did the ultrasound and she was like, “Did you know your baby’s breech?” I was like, “No, I did not.” 

Meagan: News to me. 

Rebecca: Yeah. Every time the OBs would very quickly, I will say, very quickly palpate me, they’d be like, “Yep. Feels like she’s head down. Everything’s good.” She was like, “Yeah. She’s breech so we’re going to go ahead and schedule a C-section for today at 4:00.” It was around 11:00 or something when this happened, so I just immediately started crying because I did not want a C-section. That wasn’t what I was planning for at all. 

She was like, “Well, we don’t do the (ECV)s here.” Is that what it’s called? (ECV)? Am I saying it right?

Meagan: Mhmm, yeah. 

Rebecca: Yeah. She was like, “We don’t do that here. Your amniotic fluid is kind of low, so yeah. This is your option.” 

Meagan: I wonder why they don’t do it there. 

Rebecca: I don’t know. She just said that they don’t offer that service. I guess I didn’t really know to ask for a second opinion or to see what other– I was just like, “Well, she’s telling me that this is my only option,” so we consented to the C-section which was really disappointing. 

07:25 Consenting to an unexpected C-section for breech presentation

Rebecca: My husband had to go home and get a hospital bag ready because we didn’t bring it with us or anything. We were like, “Oh, we will have time to go back if they are going to induce me.” I don’t know. We just weren’t prepared. Anyways, around 4:00, she was born via C-section and it was uncomplicated. It was uncomplicated. She did well. She did have some hip dysplasia because she was frank breech and they think she was probably frank breech for a long time, so her hips and the bones weren’t in the socket at all. But other than that, she was completely healthy. 

But yeah, I remember that night kind of laying in bed with her nursing, and my husband was asleep. I just was quietly sobbing because I felt like everything that I was looking forward to kind of got ripped away from me and I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. 

So I never got to experience one single contraction or any of that with her. I didn’t even really have Braxton Hicks with her. It almost felt like there was no closure to the pregnancy. It felt like I should still be pregnant. I definitely, yeah. That was a struggle. That was a struggle for a while afterward kind of trying to find closure of that whole experience because it was just like, “Okay, you’re pregnant and now you’re not pregnant.” There was no transition. That was her story. 

8:53 Fertility Fridays

Actually, to be honest with you, shortly after her birth, I was kind of like, “Well, if we get pregnant again, I think I’m just going to do a C-section again because I know what to expect. My body’s already been through it. You know, I think I’m just going to do a C-section again.” That was kind of what I was thinking. 

But as I went on throughout my postpartum time, when I got my period back, I noticed throughout the year that I had some weird issues. I was spotting a lot all throughout the month and just different things were happening that I was like, “This doesn’t seem quite right.” When I went to the OB about it, they were like, “Oh, it’s fine. Your body is probably just getting back into the swing of things.”

But it would be like, “Okay, well I’ve been postpartum for a while now.” This was two ye