RCS vs. VBAC

I was searching for something to post in my ICAN group this morning, and came across this great blog post on a blog I follow, written by one of my ICAN of North Texas friends.  I love the charts she incorporated from the ICAN of Omaha page and wanted to share them here, for those looking for the hard statistics of Repeat Cesarean (RCS) vs. VBAC.

Make an informed choice about the risks of Repeat Cesareans vs. VBAC's

1st C-section
 Risk of hysterectomy: 0.65%
Risk of blood transfusion: 4.05%
Risk of placenta accreta: 0.24%

2nd C-section	1st VBAC
Risk of major complications: 4.3%	Chance of successful VBAC: 63.3%
Risk of placenta accreta: 0.31%	Risk of uterine rupture: 0.87%
Risk of hysterectomy: 0.42%	Risk of hysterectomy: 0.23%
Risk of blood transfusion: 1.53%	Risk of blood transfusion: 1.89%
Risk of dense adhesions: 21.6%

3rd C-section	2nd VBAC
Risk of major complications: 7.5%	Chance of successful VBAC: 87.6%
Risk of placenta accreta: 0.57%	Risk of uterine rupture: 0.45%
Risk of hysterectomy: 0.9%	Risk of hysterectomy: 0.17%
Risk of blood transfusion: 2.26%	Risk of blood transfusion: 1.24%
Risk of dense adhesion's: 32.2%

4th C-section	3rd VBAC
Risk of major complications: 12.5%	Chance of successful VBAC: 90.9%
Risk of placenta accreta: 2.13%	Risk of uterine rupture: 0.38%
Risk of hysterectomy: 2.41%	Risk of hysterectomy: 0.06%
Risk of blood transfusion: 3.65%	Risk of blood transfusion: 0.99%
Risk of dense adhesion's: 42.2%

NOTE: "Major complications" include one or more of the following: uterine rupture, hysterectomy, additional surgery due to hemorrhage, injury to the bladder or bowel, thromboembolism, and/or excessive blood loss.

All VBAC stats for this chart are taken from the Mercer and Gilbert study, 2008 which includes induced and augmented labors. Additional studies have shown lower uterine rupture rates (especially with spontaneous labors) and higher VBAC success rates with non augmented or induced labors.

Sidenote: It's pretty awesome to know if I decide to have another baby, my chance of success for a 2VBAC is 87.6%!! :)