176 Kalie's VBAC + Precipitous Labor

We are joined today by our friend, Kalie, from Illinois. You will be captivated listening to her two wildly different birth stories! Kalie’s first birth was a crash Cesarean after a brutal labor experience with a difficult recovery. Kalie’s VBAC was an unexpectedly fast and furious birth in an emergency room. While her VBAC was a whirlwind experience, she was still able to be a strong advocate for herself and her birth wishes.  We also talk about precipitous labor and how to make empowered decisions instead of fear-based ones. Trust your body, listen to your intuition, and use your voice. You’ll know just what to do if your baby decides to come ASAP. Additional links Episode 18 Leslie’s HBAC + Special Scars The VBAC Link on Apple Podcasts How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents Full transcriptNote: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar, false starts, and filler words.  Meagan: Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is The VBAC Link podcast. We are excited that you are here with us. We have an awesome story. I mean, seriously though, every story is awesome, right? This is our friend Kalie. She is actually from Illinois, so we are excited to hear her amazingly fast VBAC. We are also going to talk about precipitous birth and what that looks like, and how to know what to do, and all the fun things like that. Before we get going into that, we have Julie with us who is going to read a review. Review of the Week Julie: Yeah, absolutely. Before I read a review, I want to tell you something funny. I have a friend, Leslie. She is on Episode 18 as a special scars episode, the very first one that we did on special scars. It was funny because we were preparing for our VBACs together. Our babies were born one month apart, so she was due a month before me. It was really funny because in both of our VBACs, the one thing we did not prepare for is the one thing that happened that was really big for us.  For me, I was not prepared for my water breaking before labor or to actually go into labor before 40 weeks. I had my baby on my sister-in-law‘s wedding day. I woke up to my water breaking. I was not prepared for that. I was prepared for everything else, but not that. And then my friend Leslie, her thing was she was prepared for everything and she was expecting to have a super long labor because her first birth, it was a Cesarean. It was 40-something hours. It was so long and the one thing she was not prepared for was to have a baby in two hours and that’s what happened with her. She had her baby in two hours. And so I think it is so interesting because people think, “Oh my gosh, long labors are so hard,” but let me tell you, these fast labors come with their own set of challenges. So it has been a while since we have had super quick labor on the show and it’s going to be fun to talk about that today. But as Meagan said, I am supposed to be doing my job right now and reading a review of the week. You know me. I can’t help but talk. Okay, so this review is from Apple Podcasts. It is from ejennd. It’s like initials enough, but not quite to where we can go stalk her on Facebook and see if she has had her VBAC or not. Right? Like, don’t tease me ejennd. I need answers. Okay. Her review says, “I found this podcast while I was preparing for a VBAC after two Cesareans.” Her first was an inverted T. Holy cow. I did not even read that part of the review, which is really interesting because the friend that I was just talking about, Leslie, had an inverted T. Isn’t that something? Okay. I’m sorry. Let me start over. “I found this podcast while I was preparing for a VBAC after two C-sections, first one being an inverted T. I listened to the episodes while I went for my five-kilometer walk a few times a week. The encouragement and knowledge that I gained from listening was a huge factor in giving me confidence to go forward to have a VBAC.  I’m happy to share that we welcomed a baby girl via an unm