If this is the very first time you’re visiting The VBAC Link, welcome! We’re so glad you found us. If you remember nothing else from our arsenal of resources, hear this – we don’t care what kind of birth experience you want. VBAC or Cesarean, hospital or home birth, physiological or medicated – it’s none of our business. What we care most about is that it’s your experience.
More than anything else, we want you to be on the other side of birth with the peace that you were informed and you made decisions that felt right to you.
That’s the goal. And we exist to help you get there.
What we think is most important in having a positive, self-directed birth experience is education. So, so many moms find us because they realize they went into their first pregnancy and birth kind of… blind. I mean, I did. I thought that taking a “natural birthing course,” creating a super cute birth plan and speaking my birth wishes into existence would do the trick. Looking back, I wish I would have invested so much more time into preparing my mind and body, understanding what to expect, learning about my options and building out my birth team.
Education is empowerment. When we feel informed, we feel prepared. And when we feel prepared, we feel confident. We believe that our birth vision matters and that we can make one good, informed decision at a time no matter what path our birth takes.
But here’s where we get tripped up. In today’s world of too much information, too many opinions and too many places to look, it’s not like it’s simple (or effective) to just Google “best birth prep” and start educating yourself. And sifting through what our friends, family and every mom on social media did is super overwhelming.
So, here’s a good place to start. No matter where you find yourself on the pregnancy continuum, newly pregnant or just deciding you want a VBAC, start here.
Your pregnancy and your birth should be managed by you and only you. You have choices. And so many moms just don’t realize how many choices are actually theirs to make. This guide full of current, evidence-based education and resources will help you understand your options and build a pregnancy and birth experience that feels right for you.
Prenatal Care
Find a Supportive Provider – You are not obligated to hire the OB you’ve been seeing for years, the provider your best friend used or the doctor who delivered you! Do your research to find a provider who matches what you’re looking for in a prenatal and birth experience. Ask around in your circle, call around to a variety of offices and provider types, interview and ask questions.
Bottom line, you have choices, and you can find so much more about finding the right provider here.
Fuel Your Body + Growing Baby – Taking care of yourself during pregnancy is about so much more than the average OB tells you. Most providers ask if you’re taking a prenatal vitamin and leave it at that. But my goodness, you and your baby deserve so much more. We are grateful for companies like Needed who are changing the game for women’s nutrition and supplementation. Their variety of Prenatals gives you options based on your preferences, and their other add-ons like Omega-3, Choline+, Collagen Protein and more are formulated to support your specific needs. Needed supplements give you the options you deserve, and we are all about that.
Learn so much more about perinatal nutrition with the help of Needed Academy. This free education program is accessible right on Instagram and will guide you through in-depth sessions to learn what pregnant and postpartum moms need to thrive plus the science behind Needed’s thoughtfully-curated products.
Childbirth Education
Take a Course – Talk about overwhelming. It seems every group, website, hospital or influencer has “the next best thing” when it comes to childbirth ed. And while we think that something is likely better than nothing, it’s important to find a course that reiterates this: your birth, your choices.
Ideally, your childbirth education course is going to cover benefits, risks, specific information and details about pregnancy, birth and postpartum in a format and price that meets your needs.
Here are a couple of our favorites:
- How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents – this self-paced course provides a deep-dive on all things VBAC, including six+ hours of video content, lists, worksheets and more (including specific risks and statistics surrounding VBAC)
- Birthdaze Bootcamp – in-person (in Colorado) and virtual options for those desiring a low-to-no intervention hospital birth
- Spinning Babies for Parents – get helpful information for a more comfortable pregnancy and a more easeful labor with their in-person or online course
- Lamaze – focused on educating parents to make informed choices and have body confidence in birth and beyond through online courses (some free!) or local in-person educators
Create a Birth Plan – One of the most effective ways to sort through your preferences for birth is to create a birth plan or birth preferences list. Our Birth Plan Guidebook helps you do just that. Using this template will guide you through all of the options you’ll have in labor (and after baby arrives) and then communicate those preferences with your partner, doula and provider.
Read the Right Books – This may be an unpopular opinion, but What to Expect When You’re Expecting isn’t exactly our favorite childbirth book. We like to think more holistically about pregnancy and birth, and we really recommend considering books that focus on the kind of experience you want rather than a one-size fits all approach. Nurture: A Modern Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, Early Motherhood – And Trusting Yourself and Your Body is an absolute favorite of mine as well as The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (for those considering nursing) You can find some of our favorites for VBAC prep here.
Something to keep in mind – doulas are really great at helping you sort through the best resources for your preferences and those in your local community. And while not all doulas provide full childbirth education courses or lactation counseling, some do! Use our Find a Doula Directory to meet a doula near you.
Listening to Birth Stories
While it’s something almost all women love to do, you don’t have to listen to every single birth story that others want to share with you. And you certainly don’t have to entertain their experiences, opinions or recommendations. If you are interested in listening to birth stories (because there is education to be found in hearing another woman’s story), try our podcast. We aim to educate and inform parents of their choices surrounding birth after Cesarean by providing true birth stories, expert interviews and evidence-based information in an honest, encouraging way.
Researching Specific Topics
No matter how much prep you do, you can’t know everything. And it would be too overwhelming to try. I like to remind my doula clients that it’s good to have a general understanding of most things and only do a deep dive on things of particular interest or concern. Our favorite, most-trusted resource for finding current, non-biased, evidence-based information is Evidence Based Birth. You can search specific topics on their website or listen to one of hundreds of podcast episodes.
Here’s the deal, from the time you realize you’re pregnant all the way through labor, postpartum and parenthood… you get to decide what’s best for you and your family. The more educated you are about your choices, the more confident you’ll be. The more confident you are, the less likely you’ll be pressured into making decisions that don’t support your overall vision.
You deserve to be the manager of your experiences, so take the time and make the investment to educate yourself. You (and your family) are totally worth it.
Vaginal Birth After Myomectomy: Evidence, Options and Real Stories