The VBAC Link

How do you cope if you don’t get your VBAC? 

Courtney D’Avella, a 2x CBAC mom, birth doula, and kids’ yoga teacher, shares some incredible wisdom today on how to find understanding and healing when the VBAC you were hoping for doesn’t happen. 

Courtney’s first birth began with an induction at 41 weeks, a HELLP syndrome diagnosis, magnesium sulfate, and an emergency cesarean under general anesthesia. For her second birth, Courtney switched to midwifery care and prepared for a VBAC. After another induction at 41 weeks, she ultimately had a CBAC after a posterior baby, no contractions, and exhaustion. Her third pregnancy brought another preeclampsia diagnosis at 38 weeks and another CBAC.

Courtney shares the empowering and healing moments, right along with the really sad ones. We talk about the value of hiring a doula without expecting a guaranteed outcome, communicating with your birth team, and preparing birth preferences that reflect what matters most to you. Courtney shares why every VBAC plan should include a cesarean plan, how identifying your why can help soften the sadness of not having the birth outcome you hope for, and what it looks like to hold grief and gratitude simultaneously.

Courtney’s Birth Preferences Workbook PDF

Kids Yoga Teacher - Courtney

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Keywords: VBAC, CBAC, CBA2C, HELLP syndrome, preeclampsia, posterior, doula, birth trauma, birth healing, informed consent, family-centered cesarean

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“I searched high and low trying to find stories like mine while I was pregnant with this baby, feeling like the odds were insanely stacked against me not only trying for a breech birth but also a VBAC.”

Hayley's first baby was breech, and she tried everything to turn her, including an ECV. She even transferred care at 39 weeks hoping for a vaginal breech birth, but ultimately had a cesarean after her supportive provider left on a preplanned vacation at 40+3.

With her second pregnancy, Hayley planned for a VBAC from the start. At 34 weeks, she found out this babe was also breech. She immediately reconnected with her first provider who was fully supportive of her VBAC. Labor started with PROM, and she spent the day waiting for contractions to pick up. Once they did, her baby was born after just 4.5 hours of active labor, unmedicated and breech! Hayley shares how important skilled providers, informed choices, and unwavering support are when navigating a breech VBAC. 

Yes, breech VBAC IS possible!

Coalition for Breech Birth

Breech Without Borders

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Trigger Warning: miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and pregnancy loss

Instead of our usual birth after cesarean story, this week, we are continuing to honor Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month by hearing our very own co-host, Lily Wyn, share her experiences with pregnancy loss. Lily’s first pregnancy ended in an early miscarriage, and her second was an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in losing her baby and one of her fallopian tubes. Her two stories of loss were deeply influential in her VBAC journey and have helped shape her into the Lily that we know and love today.

You are invited to attend this “TMI class with Lily,” where she shares the physical and emotional details of pregnancy loss that no one really talks about, but that she wished someone had told her. We believe so much in the power of sharing so others don’t feel alone. If you are currently going through pregnancy or infant loss, or if you are preparing for a birth after a loss, we see you and send all of our love. 

Love Wyns Doula

Episode 379 Lily's 66-Hour Waterbirth VBAC

Glenn Fertility and Wellness 

Episode 342 CNM Paige Boran + Lily's VBAC Prep

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“This VBAC was so redemptive for me because I felt like it was the first time my body did the things that it was designed to do without the intervention of medicine or doctors. I feel like it healed so many wounds in my soul.”

Sarah was diagnosed with hormone-positive breast cancer at 29, which involved treatment, fertility preservation, and wondering if her body would ever be able to do anything right. After 3 years of hormone suppression, she was cleared to try and get pregnant naturally. Sarah’s birth ended in a cesarean due to arrest of descent, which left her doubting my body again. 3.5 years later, her second baby was born through a redemptive, powerful, primal, and healing unmedicated VBAC!

National Breast Cancer Foundation

The VBAC Link Blog: Failure to Progress

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“Our first daughter, Violet, was born at 30 weeks via C-section due to a variety of health complications. She died 12 days later in the NICU, and we love and miss her so much. We were not aware until after she died that she had a fatal condition called triploidy, which was misdiagnosed as Dandy-Walker. 6.5 months later, through immense fear and grief, I became pregnant with our second daughter, Valerie, and I was lucky to find an amazing VBAC-friendly practice that believed in me despite the short interval between births. Valerie was born at 40+5 after 44.5 hours of labor, and her birth had my doula saying, ‘I’ve never seen this happen before!’

I hope my happy ending provides hope and inspiration to listeners, especially those who have experienced loss.”

Rachel’s story is packed with SO MUCH, including but not limited to infant loss, chromosomal abnormality, miracles, a 16.5-month interval between births, pregnancy after loss, hospital VBAC, long labor, doula support, and pivoting from unmedicated plans to an epidural and Pitocin as helpful tools.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month is a tender time, and we feel passionately that listening to women tell their stories of loss helps us become kinder, softer, and stronger together. We honor Rachel, Valerie, and sweet Violet's memory today.

Baby Loss 

The VBAC Link Blog: What to Say After Miscarriage or Stillbirth

The VBAC Link Blog: Length Between Pregnancies

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Melle McPhee is a VBAC Link Certified Doula and mom of three girls. Her first birth was an 11-hour vaginal delivery at 39+6 with an epidural and episiotomy. After PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes) at 36+5 with her second, Melle found out that her baby was footling breech and had an emergency cesarean. Melle struggled with feeling like her body had failed and feared another spontaneous preterm birth.

During her third pregnancy, Melle focused on supporting a full-term pregnancy, including daily collagen protein, exercise, and a nutrient-dense diet. At exactly 40 weeks, she went into spontaneous labor and had a 12-hour physiological home birth VBAC with a midwife. Her water didn’t break until five minutes before birth, and she had no tearing. Melle shares how she approached the recommendations surrounding VBAC, home birth, continuous monitoring, and cervical checks through informed consent and her own risk tolerance. Her biggest VBAC advice is to hire a doula and know that a previous spontaneous preterm birth does not mean your body is broken or that you can’t carry a future baby to term.

Keywords: VBAC, VBAC Doula, HBAC, home birth, PPROM, preterm birth, footling breech, breech prevention, midwife, circumvallate placenta, marginal cord insertion

Melle’s Doula Website

The VBAC Link Blog: How to Find a VBAC-Supportive Provider

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 “The deck was stacked against me: advanced maternal age, circumvallate placenta, marginal cord insertion, gestational diabetes, induced VBAC, delivery after 41 weeks, 4 hours of pushing, and vacuum assisted delivery.”

After 38 hours of labor, chorioamnionitis, and late decels, Stephanie’s rainbow baby boy was born by cesarean. His umbilical cord was only five inches long, her husband missed the birth after being forgotten outside the OR, and their son spent five days in the NICU.

For her VBAC, she tried all the things to go into labor naturally before being induced at 41+3 with low and slow Pitocin. With the support of a patient OB, doula, and her husband, she labored unmedicated and pushed for four hours before welcoming her daughter with the help of a vacuum. Even with a second-degree tear, postpartum hemorrhage, and a retained placenta, she says that her VBAC was much less traumatic than her cesarean.

The VBAC Link Blog: The Best VBAC Induction Methods 

The VBAC Link Blog: Operative Vaginal Delivery

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

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Joining us all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland is our friend, Mhairi. Her first birth in 2023 began with PROM (premature rupture of membranes) without regular contractions or cervical change. She was induced, and after concerns came up for both Mhairi and her baby, the birth ended in an emergency cesarean.

For her second birth, Mhairi planned a waterbirth VBAC despite it being outside her hospital’s protocol. She spent her pregnancy researching her options and met several times with consultants and the head of the birth department. After going into spontaneous labor, she had one final meeting with a doctor while in active labor to discuss waterbirth. Mhairi went on to have her unmedicated VBAC waterbirth, and it was just the empowering experience she hoped it would be.

Keywords: VBAC, waterbirth VBAC, waterbirth, NHS, UK maternity care, emergency cesarean, induction, spontaneous labor, unmedicated birth, doula, midwifery care

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Caitlyn is our ultimate IT girl. She’s a Certified Nurse Midwife, L&D nurse, doula, two-time VBAC mom of four, inventor of Lila Laborwear and the Lila TENS Unit, Air Force veteran, and was crowned the 2020 Mrs. United States while pregnant with her twins! 

Caitlyn’s motherhood journey began with that surprise twin pregnancy, vasa previa, and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) which led to a lengthy hospital stay and a cesarean birth with a T-incision. 

During her second pregnancy, Caitlyn was strongly discouraged from going for a VBAC. But she knew the evidence, trusted her intuition, and went for it. Caitlyn’s labor was long and challenging, but ended in an empowering VBAC! She went on to have another VBAC with her third that was unexpectedly unmedicated, using her very own Lila TENS Unit as her only pain relief.

Caitlyn shares what she wishes she had known about vasa previa, including treatment options she learned about too late, and dives into pregnancy dating, induction, nipple stimulation, membrane sweeps, castor oil, labor coping, epidurals, unmedicated birth, and preparing for labor regardless of your pain-medication plan. She explains why medical interventions should be approached strategically rather than as all or nothing by asking yourself: 

“Is this going to improve my chances of having the outcome that I want?” 

When used thoughtfully and appropriately, sometimes interventions are just the thing that will get you there. 

Lila Laborwear Website

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

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After a breech C-section in 2022 and an elective repeat in 2024, Darby switched providers to the “king of VBA2C doctors” at 34 weeks to go for a VBA2C. She hired the best VBAC doula in North Texas, did all the things to prepare and educate herself, but at 40 weeks learned her supportive doctor would be out of town. At 40+5, she labored for nearly three days while facing anti-VBAC doctors, repeated pressure for a C-section, and “dead baby” fear-mongering. She ultimately left the hospital AMA, continued laboring close by with her husband and doula, then returned two days later.

Darby finally had a doctor from her supportive practice arrive during an overnight labor, and despite baby’s heart rate struggling with contractions, meconium, severe dehydration with ketones, four IVs due to rolling veins, an epidural, and 45 minutes of pushing resulting in a third-degree tear, she got her VBA2C and the perfect skin-to-skin moment she was dreaming of. 

Darby’s message to you all is to know your rights, advocate for yourself, trust your intuition, and stay flexible. 

About her resistance from doctors, she says, “It was the most intense and probably most medically traumatizing thing of my life, but the end was the most empowering thing ever.” 

Women of Strength, the way you are treated in birth matters. Get educated, and don’t settle for any less than what you deserve!

The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents

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