Notes of Insight from Dr. C

I've been meaning to do this post for some time, but just haven't had a chance to sit down and actually do it!  So the ICAN meeting was really cool with Dr. C.  He said a few things that really stuck out to me:

• Let the people around you help you, trust them and trust your body.
• These people include your midwife/doctor, your doula, your husband and your support team
• I plan on my support team being Daddy B, Aunt K, Amiga C and the doula
• This spoke to me because I know a big part of a VBAC is your mindset and having trust in all the things out of your control.  
• 95-96% of babies will come out!
• Your birth plan is usually broken 3 lines down and is simply a list of wishes.
• This one made me think that I will write up a birth plan when the time comes, but I'm not going to focus on it unless I end up in a c/s, which in that case I will want things a lot different than last time, like seeing my baby immediately after they are born and before they are cleaned up, having my baby in recovery with me and being able to start nursing.
• Your husband's bottom line is YOU, his wife, not the baby.
• Dr. C used an analogy saying "Imagine your baby is in the middle of highway 635 and dad is on one side and mom is on the other.  If you both start going for the baby in the traffic, the mom will win every time and the dad will have figured out a way to save both the mom and the baby."  
• This really spoke to Daddy B and I and I think it was one of the things that led Daddy B to feel that Dr. C was the right choice for us.  It honestly warms my soul to hear it put that way because I realize how true it is and how much Daddy B loves and cares for me.  I am his first priority because he knows his children are in my hands and are MY first priority.  (teared up just typing that!) :)
• The risks of a c/s are the same of any major surgery
• Spinal injury
• Anesthesia
• Cutting uterine artery
• infection
• Put that way, it sure sounds like a VBAC is a better choice, doesn't it??
• Labor at home, it keeps people off of you
• As soon as you go to a the hospital while you are in labor, you will be bombarded with questions, poked with needles and nagged constantly about how you are doing.  Dr. C wants you to labor at home until you KNOW you need the hospital so you have less chance of someone butting in and throwing things off course
• The average labor lasts 18 hours
• A VBAC mom needs something different because she is nervous.
• Jeez so true.  I'm not even there yet, but after you feel like your body and/or the medical system has failed you, you are just plain nervous you won't be able to do it again the way you want to.  I know I'll need constant reassurance towards the delivery time that I'm made to deliver a baby the way I want to.
• You have a "love affair" with your OB and when you trust them and they let you down, it's heartbreaking and you're angry.
• Another true statement.  You trust your OB so much and when you're a first time mom and have really put all your naivety in their hands... you realize afterwards just how different it could have been if you had maybe not thought you knew so much and listened to others' experience and tried to learn from it.

Okay so the day after the meeting and after we had made our decision to switch from the midwife group, I called Dr. C's office to find out if I could get a consultation appointment or something so that I could be an existing patient before I became pregnant.  I figured with his reputation, he would be in high demand and wanted to make sure I would have him on my team when the time came.  So I call and talk to a receptionist and she tells me that Dr. C isn't taking new patients.  I was like "................what?  When WILL he be taking new patients??"  She said he hadn't been for months and didn't see it ending any time soon.  I asked about me being a VBAC patient and it didn't change her answer.  I was so upset when I got off the phone.  I jumped on the ICAN board and posted a new topic about this and my wonderful ICAN ladies replied within minutes telling me to call back and say I wanted a VBAC consult.  I did call back and talked to a different receptionist (who was a lot nicer!) and it turns out that Dr. C isn't taking regular OB patients anymore, as he wants to focus on VBAC and high-risk pregnancy mamas.  So long story short (or shorter...ha) we have a consult appointment for June 18th.  Daddy B and I are both looking forward to it!!