Hello! Thank you for this great forum. I have found it (and its predecessor) to be such a useful resource through many years of my doula work and my own mothering!
Today's question: I have a friend who is 39.5 weeks pregnant now and planning and passionately hoping for a VBAC. She is working with a team of hospital-based CNMs who seem to be quite supportive of VBAC. She and her care-providers decided together to schedule a repeat cesarean at 41 weeks, feeling that by that time, it will just feel like time to get the baby out. I think the thinking has to do with their prediction that the baby will be large. I think there is also a sense of not wanting to head down the same road she went down with baby #1. My friend's first cersarean birth occured at 42 weeks for "failure to progress" after an induction. She had virtually no amniotic fluid.
I absolutely honor my friend's ability to makes choices that feel right to her, but I also feel how fervently she hopes for this VBAC, and I fear that this plan lowers her chances, both because it gives her less time to go into labor and because it creates a feeling of pressure now. From the standpoint of research on the interactions between baby size and VBAC safety and success, does this plan make sense? Can you think of any reason why it might be advisable to plan to operate at 41 weeks?
Thank you for any thoughts! |