Kelli’s Cesarean & Breech HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Kelli, who is a mother of two. Kelli’s first birth ended in a cesarean after it was discovered that her baby was breech when she arrived at the hospital in labor. When she became pregnant with her second baby, Kelli discovered that this baby was also breech, but she knew that she didn’t want to have another cesarean. At 39 weeks, just 3 days shy of going into labor, Kelli solidified the support of a home birth midwife and gave birth to her breech baby in the comfort of her own home.

Join us as Kelli shares her birth stories and takes us through her journey of finding support to give birth to her breech VBAC baby at home after the intense manipulation, bullying, coercion and unprofessional behavior from the hospital, how she finally found validation in feeling traumatized by her c-section with the women she was connecting with in online forums, and how she desperately wanted someone to actually take the time to listen to her and trust her knowledge of her own body. We also discuss the mourning and grief experienced when our birth plans don’t line up with what we had pictured, the loss of not getting to watch our babies come out of our own bodies when we have a cesarean, how our memories of traumatic events can be impacted and it often feels as if we are remembering events through the photos/videos that were taken, how common it is to just take a doctor at their word and the emphasis we put on a doctor’s opinion, how the unpredictability of natural birth vs. a scheduled cesarean is perceived in the hospital, how doctors can use scare tactics to coerce women into what is easiest for their schedules, a baby’s perspective of a scheduled cesarean, how finding a community of supportive women can impact our healing, and how impactful it is for a baby’s first sensory experiences to be in the safety and comfort of their own home.

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Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.