The VBAC Link

We are closing out our Cesarean Awareness Month series on the most common reasons for C-sections with a deep dive into all things fetal monitoring! CNM Paige Boran, who attended Lily’s VBAC and who we deeply love and trust, answers every question you can imagine. This is definitely an episode you will want to save and listen back to often!

Midwife Paige talks about:
The history of continuous fetal monitoring
The differences between continuous, internal, and internal monitoring
Bradycardia and tachycardia readings
CFM and VBAC
When she recommends having CFM
How to advocate informed consent and declination
Early, variable, and late decelerations
Head compression and cord compression
When fetal heart tracings become concerning & what empowered conversations look like
Ways to help resolve decels
Placental insufficiency
All signs of uterine rupture
How to make the decision of going for a C-section or continuing to labor 
Evidence on continuous fetal monitoring

And more!! We are so grateful for providers like Midwife Paige who we have seen in action and are willing to take the time to help educate our community. For those who question if they made the right call to have a cesarean or continue to labor due to fetal heart readings, we send you love. It is so tough!

Fetal heart tones are so nuanced. We hope that with this episode, you feel empowered with more knowledge to find a team that gives you the support and individualized care you deserve. 

Evidence Based Birth®: Evidence on Continuous Fetal Monitoring
NYT Article on Continuous Fetal Monitoring
The VBAC Link Blog: The 5 Most Common Reasons for C-section
The VBAC Link Blog: How to Navigate VBAC Hospital Policies
Needed Website: Code TVL for 20% Off

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We’re so excited to bring you another episode in our Cesarean Awareness Month series! This one was highly requested in our VBAC Link Facebook Community and we can’t wait for you to hear Catherine’s stories. Today’s topic is all about BREECH, one of the most common reasons for cesareans.
Catherine, a mom of four with a bicornuate uterus, shares her four births: a scheduled breech cesarean, a precipitous head-down HBAC, a breech CBAC, and a planned breech HBA2C that ended in a hospital transfer for a CBA2C but with a surprise breech VBA2C on the OR table!
Catherine opens up about how communication can shape a birth experience just as much as the outcome, and how even intended healing experiences can have traumatic pieces to them. She shares her passion for informed breech birth, patient advocacy, consent, midwifery care, and navigating both in-hospital and out-of-hospitalbirth settings, along with the importance of emotional processing and support.
Her message is a strong reminder not to settle, Women of Strength! When you understand your options, trust your body, and advocate for the care you deserve, you can move through birth feeling informed and empowered, even when things don’t go as planned.

Breech Without Borders
The VBAC Link Blog: The 5 Most Common Reasons for C-section
The VBAC Link Blog: ECV and VBAC
Needed Website: Code VBAC for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

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As we continue our Cesarean Awareness Month series, CBAC and RCS moms, this one's for you. If your future birth looks like a subsequent cesarean, we want to make that cesarean the best, most peaceful, and empowering experience it can be. Better birth after cesarean means better options, and today's episode takes a deep dive into the option of Maternal Assisted Cesareans (MAC). 

We are joined today by Dr. Koen Deurloo from the Netherlands. Dr. Koen is a Dutch OB/GYN specializing in perinatology and family-centered cesarean birth. Since 2017, his team has performed more than 300 Maternal Assisted Cesareans, developing one of the most experience-based approaches to this technique. He is also the author of Door de ogen van een gynaecoloog and teaches widely on respectful, trauma-informed birth care. His work focuses on creating transparency and calm so parents feel genuinely involved and supported throughout the entire process, especially in the operating room. 

In this episode, Dr. Koen walks us through how he was first introduced to the MAC (spoiler: it was a mom and her doula!), how the procedure has evolved over time, what his patients have to say about it (another spoiler: 100% recommend it), and how to advocate for this kind of experience with your provider.

Birth after cesarean deserves dignity. It deserves options, and it deserves finding a provider who holds your stories with care and who speaks about birth the way Dr. Koen does.
We PROMISE this is an episode you will not want to miss!!!

Women of strength, we know how difficult it can be to choose between going for a VBAC, pivoting to a CBAC, or scheduling a repeat cesarean. Whether for medical or personal reasons, your choice is valid and good. There are so many brave ways to birth. As always, our team here at The VBAC Link is here to give you options, stories, resources, love, and support!

Through the Eyes of a Gynecologist by Dr. Koen Deurloo
MACAZINE
Paige’s Maternal Assisted Cesarean Story
Needed Website: Code VBAC for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

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Is it possible to have a VBAC with multiples? YES. In honor of Cesarean Awareness Month, Erin, a registered dietitian and mom of four (under 5!), shares her journey through cesarean, VBAC, miscarriage, and a twin VBAC. She opens up about navigating postpartum anxiety, benefiting from medication, and how her hard work and growth helped her have a different mindset when a lot of similar things happened in subsequent births. 

Erin’s first birth was a cesarean during COVID due to fetal heart decels, her second was a healing VBAC and her third and fourth births were an induced twin VBAC for cholestasis. Her stories touch on miscarriage, close pregnancy intervals, di-di twin pregnancy, provider support, membrane sweeps, epidural and Pitocin. 

She also shares the realities of postpartum recovery, breastfeeding with a nipple shield, and facing a neonatal emergency when one of her twins required surgery at just three weeks old. Erin’s big VBAC tips are to have birth preferences instead of rigid plans while holding strong to your boundaries, find care that is individualized to your unique circumstances, and lean into positive affirmations. 
Connect with her on Instagram @the.dietitian.mama or at morningbirdnutrition.com.

VBAC Certified Doula Finder
The VBAC Link Supportive Provider List
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training
Submit Your VBAC/CBAC Story

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April is Cesarean Awareness Month and Women of Strength, we are aware of YOU.
All month long, we are bringing you VBAC stories & discussions featuring these most common reasons for cesareans:
• Big babies
• Failure to progress
• Twins
• Breech
• Fetal heart tones
And for our CBAC and RCS mamas, we’ve got a special episode all about maternal assisted cesareans, so stay tuned!! 
In today’s episode, we talk with Katie, a Certified Professional Midwife from Oregon, whose journey into midwifery began after her own VBAC. Her first birth began spontaneously at the start of COVID and ended in a cesarean with an asynclitic, sunny side up baby. Her second birth was a healing VBAC at a freestanding birth center with midwives.
Her third birth at home was longer than her previous VBAC and required her to let go of expectations and trust the process. This birth ended in a successful VBAC with a shoulder dystocia, postpartum hemorrhage, and a second degree tear. We’ll let you listen to the episode to find out just how big her record-setting baby was!
Katie talks about just how different births can be, what it takes to become a CPM, ways to manage postpartum hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia maneuvers, safe transfer from out-of-hospital to hospital care, and recent policies that impact midwives attending VBACs. 
Katie reminds us to choose your birth team wisely, the mind is a powerful thing, and sometimes letting go of expectations is the only way through.

VBAC Certified Doula Finder
The VBAC Link Supportive Provider List
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training
Submit Your VBAC/CBAC Story

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands