Planning a home birth VBAC

Didn't want to read and run.

I think your midwife sounds sensible and that you will be able to see any warning signs in time to get to hospital. Has she done many home VBAC's?

Good luck for your birth - I hope it goes beautifully!

I think we all have our worries about birth, no matter where we plan to birth but you have to be open for anything to happen. With Brody i planned a homebirth (would have been my 3rd HB and 4th VBAC) but when i got to about 30wks i said to my DP that i had this huge feeling that i should be packing a hospital bag. My 2 homebirths were easy and well planned and went really well that is why i wanted to birth at home again, where i felt safest. But Brody had other ideas and i did actually end up at the hospital to have my waters broken after 24hrs of very slow exhausting labour. That morning before going in to the hospital i burst out crying because i saw my HB going down the drain even though i knew that it wasnt possible to have my HB. In the end i was so glad we were at the hospital and he was born 4hrs later and we were home by 3pm, so it wasnt all that bad really. It is hard but you have to be comfortable with your situation at the time and you wont really know what will happen until the day. Good luck :D.

Thank you everyone for your comments and advice.

Melnel - it does not sound silly to be petrified of the pain. I guess the ironic thing is, the more afraid of pain you are, the more painful it will be (the whole fear-tension-pain thing). Have you read Ina May Gaskins Guide to Childbirth? It is the best birth book I think I have read. Also read New Active Birth - these books made me really believe in my body, and I understand now that any pain I feel should not be feared.   I am afraid of my uterus rupturing and me and my baby dying. Which I think is a bit more crazy, as the chances of that happening are extremely low.

I think now, that I will go for a hospital birth. After reading Weegees birth story it made me feel that a hospital birth could go the way I want it to go. I called Chch Womens hospital and spoke to the charge midwife, who said that no-one is allowed in the birthing room without my permission unless it is an emergency. So that made me feel better.
I just think that if my one fear is uterine rupture, where an immediate c-section is required, then I can remove that fear by being in a hospital setting. Then if all goes well this time, I will opt for a home birth next time.

One thing that I think is crazy though, is that every midwife I have spoken to about the VBAC has said to labour at home for as long as possible before coming to the hospital. Surely if they were at all worried about uterine rupture they would not advise this as the rupture can occur at any stage during pregnancy or labour. It doesn't make sense to me, especially how when you get to the hospital they want to hook you up to continuous monitering, IV line etc, when the risk hasn't actually changed at all to what it was when you were labouring at home.

I'm not planning a homebirth but I live a similar distance from the nearest hospital, and then it is the same commute again should anything happen at that 'minor' hospital, to go to the nearest 'major' hospital. If you do need to transfer to hospital, ambulance crew/midwife/paramedics via 111 are all well-equipped in what to look out for and what to do. If your mw is happy to take you on as a homebirth (and I don't see why not since there is not recurring likelihood) and you yourself are comfortable with it, then go for it. When I had a VBAC I wasn't comfortable with homebirth but my hospital birth went absolutely fine.