Episode 234 Sydney's VBAC + Do We Really Have to Have a Baby by 40 Weeks?

Sydney joins Meagan on the podcast today to share her VBAC story and talk about her experiences going past 42 weeks for both of her pregnancies. Meagan shares a story about one of her doula clients who went past 43 weeks! Sydney and Meagan discuss how due dates are calculated and the flaws behind the method that is so widely used.Meagan shares evidence-based information about the risks involved with being pregnant longer than 42 weeks as well as risks surrounding the choice to induce earlier. Having multiple sources of information along with your personal experiences and feelings will help you feel more empowered to make the right decisions surrounding when to birth your baby!Additional LinksBirthful Podcast Episode on Due DatesEBB: Evidence on Due Dates BlogHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsThe VBAC Link Facebook CommunityFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Hello! It is The VBAC Link. My name is Meagan and we have another VBAC story for you today. In addition to the VBAC story, we’re going to be talking about postdates. This is a really hot topic especially in the VBAC world because we have a lot of people, I don’t want to say forced necessarily, but pressed to induce their labor. I think after the ARRIVE trial came out, it’s become even more pressing to have a baby by 39 weeks. I feel like the way we view the new due dates is that 40 weeks is 41. 39 is 40. 38 is 39. I feel like in a lot of areas in the world, that is how our mental state has shifted and we don’t really hear 41 weeks or 42 weeks as much anymore. Today, we have Sydney, and guess what you guys? She had 42 weeks and 5 days, right? Is that right Sydney with your first? Sydney: Mhmm, that’s right. Yes. Meagan: And then 42 weeks and 3 days with the second. So you are one of those mamas that carry further along than a lot of people. We’re going to actually make sure to have it here in the show notes but the Birthful Podcast, I don’t know if you guys listen to Birthful Podcast but I love it. I’m not even expecting anymore. I’m done having kids but I still love listening to it because the guests that she has on there are just filled with information. I want to say the guest she had, her name was Gayle I want to say. Don’t quote me on that. But she has an episode all about due dates and talking about how the body carries. Review of the WeekWe are going to get some more into that at the end but of course, we have a review of the week and then we will have Sydney share her VBAC story with you. This review is by Rachelmademusic. It says, “Such a gem of a show. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Julie and Meagan, for creating this supportive and powerful space for mamas like me to learn and prepare for our VBACs. I’m currently 33 weeks pregnant and preparing for my own VBAC. I can’t begin to express just how thankful I am to have found this podcast. I am truly grateful for this resource and for all of the mamas who come onto this show and share their stories. There is such an incredible strength and collective wisdom to be found here and I highly recommend this podcast to anyone preparing for VBAC or not.”Oh, thank you so much Rachelmademusic. I would agree. This podcast is such a great platform for first, second-time, third-time moms, fourth-time moms, and not even just VBAC moms because there is so much information that is shared on this podcast that talks about how to avoid a Cesarean. When we have a Cesarean in the US, it’s almost 32%. That’s pretty stinking high especially when it used to be 5% way back in the day. Although our VBAC rates are also going up, Cesarean rates have just skyrocketed. So if we can learn how to avoid an unnecessary Cesarean or undesired which a lot of us have had undesired and unplanned or maybe unnecessary Cesareans, we can start lowering that. I think it could be super impactful to a lot of the world because as part of these stories, we hear these first-time Cesareans or second-time Cesareans and they don’t always resonate with positivity. That is hard because we want our birth experiences to be positive. So yeah. I think that it’s super important that anybody listens to all of these birth stories. Sydney’s StoriesMeagan: Okay, welcome to the show, Sydney. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be here with us and share these stories. Sydney: Thank you. Meagan: Are you in Virginia? Is that correct? Sydney: Yep, I’m in Virginia. Meagan: Awesome. We’re going to start trying to say where people are because a lot of the times, we’ll get messages that will say, “Oh my gosh, I’m in the same area. Is there any way I could get their providers?” So it’s fun to be like, “I’m in Virginia. I will listen to this too because I want a VBAC and I want to learn who is supportive or who is maybe not supportive.” Yes, okay. Well, I would love to just hear your story and share this with all of you women of strength listening. Sydney: Yeah, great. Okay, thanks. Yes, I’m Sydney. I’ll just jump into my first birth story. I was pregnant actually during the pandemic. My due date was August 8, 2020. Meagan: Okay, in the thick of it, really. Sydney: Yes, right in the midst of it. We were planning to birth with our birth center here locally. I actually was living in Tennessee when I got pregnant then moved about halfway through and started prenatal care with a birth center here so I was planning for a natural birth and just sort of assumed everything would be fine. Women had been giving birth forever. I come from a lot of strong women having a lot of babies so I just did not even think. I assumed it would be fine. Meagan: Yeah, you didn’t think anything of it. Yeah. Sydney: Yeah, this is just what people do. I’ll be fine. Everything was pretty normal with the pregnancy. I got to 40 weeks and had no signs of labor. I was not really worried about it at that point. Then I started getting to the end of 41 weeks and I was like, “Hmm. Huh. What do I do now?” The midwives were really helpful and gave me of course all of the things to try. I tried all of the things. I was going to the chiropractor multiple times. I tried acupuncture. I was drinking tea. I was pumping and doing all of the things that they told me I should do to try and get labor going. I just was not having much luck. So finally we decided, “Okay.” I was going to be 42 weeks on a Saturday so we thought, “I’ll try the big guns, castor oil, on Saturday.” Something happened with the midwife. She wasn’t ready for me to do it on Saturday so we had to wait until Monday which was 42+2. I took it first thing Monday morning at 6:00 or 7:00 AM. I could not keep it down. I threw it up so I had to do it again which was horrible. I hated it. I was like, “I’m never doing this again.”Meagan: Did you drink it straight? Did they have you mix it in a concoction? Sydney: They had me do a milkshake with vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, and castor oil. Meagan: Yeah, that’s actually similar to what I drank. Sydney: Really? Okay. Meagan: Yeah, with my second. It’s gross. Sydney: It was still so disgusting. Meagan: Yeah, yeah. Sydney: I did it a second time. The castor oil did its job. It got some contractions going but I was walking a lot to just keep them doing anything. That sort of continued through Tuesday. I was having just mild contractions on and off. Then by Wednesday morning which was when I was 42+4, they were strong and consistent. The midwives were like, “Okay, we think you’re ready to come in. Let’s get things going.”I remember they had to meet us at the birth center. It was 7:30 in the morning. I got there and apparently, another mom had beat me there. She was also in labor. So as soon as I walked in, I’m a first-time pregnant mom, she is pushing her baby out and screaming. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever heard. Literally, I think my cervix just closed up and was like, “Nope. Not doing that.” I literally didn’t have contractions for a couple of hours after that. It all stopped. Meagan: Yeah. Sydney: That was unfortunate, Meagan: That can happen. That can really happen though. It doesn’t even matter. Maybe nothing significant like a woman screaming in labor, it doesn’t have to seem significant. It can be just shifting from the car to the hospital or your home to the car or downstairs to upstairs. Something off can calm things down. Sydney: It did, yeah. Meagan: Sometimes it’s just your body responding and needing a break. Sydney: Yeah, yeah and that’s really what happened. The midwives worked with me all day. We were doing Miles Circuit. I remember that it was August so it was scorching outside. They had me climbing hills and stairs and curb walking. They made my husband stay inside and take a nap because he was exhausted. I was doing all of the things, pumping every half an hour and they were giving me tinctures every 30 minutes. Still, by 5:00, I think I was maybe 3 centimeters but contractions were not picking up. They weren’t strong enough and we were both exhausted so the midwives were like, “All right. I think the best plan is for you to go home, drink a glass of wine and take some Tylenol PM. Let’s get these mild contractions to stop so you can relax and then you probably need to go be induced in the morning.” Because at this point, we were 42 and 4. I was starting to get uncomfortable. I was just exhausted. They were like, “It probably would be beneficial for you at this point to be induced and have an epidural so you can just rest and relax and let your body do what it needs to do.” That was our plan. We went home and did that. It worked for a couple of hours but the contractions actually really picked up overnight so by 4:30, I was like, “We need to go. I can’t do this anymore.” I think we did the wine and Tylenol PM again later in the night and it just was not working. So at this point, I was like, “Okay. We’re ready to go.” We ended up going to the hospital. By the time I got there, they were like, “You do not need to be induced. You’re already in active labor.” I was like, “Okay, great. Let’s do this.” We labored for a while and decided later that morning to try for an epidural so that I could just get some rest because we were so tired. As soon as I got into position for the epidural, the baby’s heart rate decelerated so there was panic. There were a ton of people in the room. They were doing oxygen. They wanted to check the baby’s position to see if the baby had maybe dropped or something but the baby stabilized almost immediately. They said I was at an 8. I was like, “Oh wow. Okay. Forget the epidural. Let’s just do it.” I continued to labor for a couple of hours and they checked me again. This was probably at 11:00 and they said I was at a 4. Meagan: What?!Sydney: I was like, “Huh? What?” I don’t know if the first person got it wrong. I have no idea what happened but I was in a different position when they checked me. It was a whole thing. Meagan: It’s happened. I’ve been to births where that’s happened where they were like, “Oh, you are 9 centimeters,” and getting the cart out, then getting the provider to come in then the provider comes in and is like, “She’s 5 centimeters,” then we’re like, “What?” The one provider explained to me and the team said that sometimes if we have a really, really stretchy, favorable cervix, especially during a contraction or certain positions, it can feel thinner than it is or feel like it is dilated more than it is and then they change that or a different person checks and they’re like, “Yeah, no.” But man, that’s a frustrating scenario. Sydney: I was devastated. So at that point, I was like, “All right, bring me the epidural.” I’m only at 4 centimeters.Meagan: Yeah. Change of plans, let’s do that again. Sydney: I cannot go much longer. So they were bringing the epidural. Meanwhile, they decided to break my water because she could feel the water and there was meconium in it so that gave them a red flag. When they went to bring the epidural and I got into position, the same thing happened. Baby’s heart rate went this time way, way down into the 20s. Meagan: Like something is being compressed. Sydney: Yeah, so at that point it wasn’t even a question. They rushed me out for a C-section immediately. By the time we got to the OR, baby had stabilized but they were like, “You’re both exhausted. We need to get this baby out. You’ve been doing this way too long,” and I was postdated and there was meconium so I think there was a lot of concern. Then they went to give me a spinal tap so I could be awake and it didn’t take. They did it twice and it didn’t take. Meagan: Did the baby’s heart rate react then?Sydney: Not that I know of. Meagan: It’s not working. It’s not working, yeah. Sydney: So they put me under and I birthed my baby asleep which was a whole thing but she was on my chest not too much after she was born and I was able to nurse immediately. They tried to be really accommodating to me and they were very mother/baby friendly. Meagan: Yeah. Did they bring you back pretty quickly? Sydney: Yeah. Meagan: Like you were awake right after? Sydney: Yes, pretty much. I think they were still working on me while I was awake. Meagan: Okay, yeah. Sydney: And then my husband was able to be there. He got to see her first while they were examining her. It all was fine. We were both healthy and we were okay but it was a little bit of a traumatic experience and not what we were planning for at all from a natural birth to a total C-section. Moving on to being pregnant again, I was like, “All right. What do I want to do now because it feels like the natural birth didn’t go well but this time around–” I don’t know. I felt like I was more prepared and knew a lot more. There were a lot of choices I made with the first birth that I knew I wouldn’t make with the second. I had said, “I’m not going past 42 weeks.” Obviously, I didn’t but that was my mindset. I was like, “I’m going to do what I can to have the baby ahead of time.” So anyways, my second baby was due July 10, 2022, so just under two years later. I did decide to go with the birth center again, the same birth center. We had a good prenatal experience there and I love the midwives there. And again, I felt like I was more knowledgeable this time around. I knew that I was getting a doula. I did not have that the first time. I knew that I wanted to set myself up for success as much as I could. So again, I was doing everything I knew to do to shorten the pregnancy. I went to the chiropractor early and I went consistently every week. I drank lots of the Nora tea. I started pumping at 36 weeks every day. I was taking Gentle Birth and walked consistently. Meagan: So great. Sydney: I was doing everything. The pregnancy was fairly normal. This baby was breech at 34 weeks and I was so discouraged because I was like, “I’m a VBAC. A lot of people aren’t going to want to do that.” Even my midwives were a little bit hesitant to do that because I had never had a vaginal birth. They usually are good with breech births, but with my situation, they were like, “We’re not sure we want to take that risk.” So I knew my chances of VBAC with a breech baby were very low. So I was doing inversions. I did acupuncture. I put frozen peas on my belly. I did everything that people told me to do. He did flip by 36 weeks which I was very thankful for. So anyways, I’m doing all of these things to make sure that this pregnancy is shorter. At 40 weeks, I upped the walking. I started swimming but no signs of labor at all. At 41 weeks, the same thing. Not dilated at all, getting discouraged. And of course, during this time, we’re doing a lot of non-stress tests and trying to make sure that baby is still doing well. Around 42 weeks again, I said, “I’m not going past 42 weeks,” but of course when it gets to that point, I’m like, “Just a couple of more days. I want to do everything I can to have the birth that I want.” So at 42 weeks, I was 1 centimeter and we were all so thankful. The midwife did a sweep and I did castor oil again. I tried to hit it with everything in one day. I think I ended up doing the castor oil three times because it wasn’t doing anything. Meagan: Oh my goodness. Sydney: So eventually, it worked and I got some contractions at midnight to 3:00 AM and then it just sort of fizzled out. I just kept having really mild contractions. At 42 weeks and 3 days, I decided that there was not much more I can do at this point. I need to go be induced because we really were trying everything. They were not getting strong enough or consistent enough to make any progress. Meagan: Again, post date. Sydney: Right, right. My body is going this long, so do I trust that? I know that the risk goes up significantly after 42 weeks from what I’ve heard and read so it’s weighing that balance of, “I know baby’s okay but how long am I willing to wait this out and take risks?” So I decided to go be induced. They put me in triage at 7:00 AM on a Saturday and of course, the nurse was basically like, “You’re this huge fish that doctors never see because you’re a transfer. You’re a VBAC. You’re post dates.” Just all of these different things that made me an interesting patient. Meagan: All of the checkmarks against you here. Sydney: Yes. They were able to get us into a room later that morning. It had a tub. The nurse we had was really sweet. She knew that we were from a birth center. She was like, “I have this room with a tub. Someone’s in it but if you can wait a couple of hours, you can get into that room.” So we got into the room with the tub. They started me with a Foley balloon and that did not take very long at all and then they started Pitocin at a very, very low level, like a 2 I think. Meagan: That’s a really great, nice way to induce. A Foley with a low dose of 2 or 4 milliliters of Pit for a little bit. Sydney: Yeah, yeah. I was able to be in the tub for a little while. I stayed in there for a couple of hours and then I think around some time that afternoon at 3:00 I did ask for an epidural because again, I had been up for days at this point and needed to just rest. Meagan: So tired, yeah. Sydney: The anesthesiologist was in surgery so it was a few hours. I think they didn’t come until 7:30 that evening. This time, everything went fine. I was able to get the epidural and get some rest. It was just like, “Wow. I did not anticipate feeling this good right now.” It was such a relief and I was able to get some rest. My doula came around then and was very helpful and sweet. Then around 11:30 that night, I started throwing up. They thought maybe it was the epidural. They said that can sometimes make people nauseous. They were checking all that and my doula was like, “She might be in transition. Why don’t we check?” And I was fully dilated which was so exciting. I was getting ready to push and I was happy to finally be doing something and feeling productive. I was pushing for a while. After about an hour or so, the doctor that was with me switched out with another doctor. I think she had another surgery to be in or something. The doctor that came in was the doctor that did my first C-section. He almost immediately– he hadn’t been in the room very long but he said that if I couldn’t push the baby out that they would have to use forceps or do a C-section. Meagan: Had he been pushing with you at all at this point or did he just bluntly say these things before even assessing? Sydney: Yeah. He had been in there maybe for five minutes. I was so discouraged and my doula just looked at me and winked like, “Don’t worry about that.” Meagan: Don’t worry. Yeah. Ignore what he just said. Sydney: Yeah. I think it took me– we started pushing around 12:30 and then he was born I think at 2:30 or so. So 2-2 ½ hours of pushing. Meagan: That’s not long at all. Sydney: It wasn’t too bad. That was really sweet. I finally got to have a vaginal birth. My husband was there. He got to announce the gender and cut the cord. I got him on my chest immediately and it was really sweet. I did have a 3A tear which was–Meagan: 3rd degree, yeah. Sydney: Yeah. It was a tough recovery with that but otherwise, it was a really, really good experience. Again, not in the birth center, not the natural birth that I had envisioned but it went so much better than I could have anticipated. Meagan: Good. Sydney: I’m really thankful for that. Meagan: I want to talk about that a little bit before we get into due dates. Like you said, it wasn’t the natural birth you anticipated, but in the end, you had an epidural that truly was such an amazing tool in your labor. At first, you couldn’t get it, but then you were able to rest, and like you said, “I didn’t anticipate feeling this good.” The world puts such shame on people for both sides actually of, “Hey, if you don’t go unmedicated then you’re crazy and you’re going to have a C-section,” or “Hey, if you go unmedicated, you’re crazy and then if you get an epidural then you’re crazy and you’re going to have a C-section.” It’s just not that way. We need to take out these absolute statements of, “If you do this, you won’t have this,” because it’s not true. I can’t tell you enough. We get so many emails of, “I really want to VBAC so badly but I just don’t feel I can go unmedicated. It’s not my personality. It’s not what I desire.” They’re like, “It just sucks that I can’t have a VBAC because I don’t want to go unmedicated.” I’m like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. If you want a VBAC, you don’t have to go unmedicated.” It’s the same thing with induction. Are there some things around induction that may increase some risks or some chances? Yes. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen though, right? This provider that started you out with this induction is a really great way to induce. Yeah. You had progressed a little bit before with your first so that’s also a really great factor, but yeah. You don’t have to go unmedicated to have a vaginal birth in general. I mean, look at all of the people that truly don’t go unmedicated. It doesn’t make you less of a person if you don’t have an epidural. Something I love about your stories, both of them, is that you had the discussion with the midwives but you had this thing of, “Okay. We’re going to go to the hospital now. I’m making this choice for me, for my baby, and this is what I feel good about.” I think that’s important to note too. Sometimes plans change and plans can change. Sydney: Yes, yes. I held it a lot more loosely the second time around than I did the first. Meagan: Yeah. Well, I think it’s just because in the world we get a lot of pressure and shame for decisions that we make. My kids are in a lot of sports and I get shamed for my kids being in sports and that has nothing to do with anybody else’s life. Yeah. Listeners, you guys birth the way you desire. If that’s a repeat Cesarean, that’s a repeat Cesarean. If that’s an induction, that’s an induction. If it’s unmedicated, medicated, or whatever it may be, birth the way you want. But on the way to birthing the way you want, make informed choices by getting the education and the knowledge behind every choice that you are making. Okay, so due dates. Here you have two babies that have gone over 42 weeks. Neither of them had many issues or anything. Maybe we had some mec which is common, especially in postdate babies. So I want to talk about what postdate means or what all of the terms mean. An early-term baby is between 37 and 38+6. That’s an early-term baby. A full-term baby is 39 to 40+6. A late-term baby is 41-41+6 and then a post-term baby is 42 weeks or later. Technically, you had two postdate babies. I had an early, a full, and a late baby. I had three different ones. One of the resources that we love so much is Rebecca Dekker at Evidence Based Birth. If you guys have not checked out that website, it’s so amazing. They turn studies into English for the people who can’t understand a lot of these studies because it’s really hard. They turn them into English. One of the things that she talks about on this specific blog which we’ll have in the show notes is titled “Evidence on Due Dates.” One of the things she talks about, and shame me if I’m pronouncing this wrong, but it’s called the Negel’s Rule. It’s something I had never really heard about until probably a year ago but back in the 40s, a professor in the Netherlands created this rule on how to calculate estimated due dates. She says, “Based on the records of 100 pregnant women, they have figured an estimated due date by adding 7 dates to their last period,” then that is 9 months. It’s crazy though because if you think about this world and our periods as women, we are not the same. Nobody. I can guarantee you that I am not the same as my neighbor or my friend or even my sister. We have different cycles and this was based on a 28-day cycle ovulating on the 14th day. That just doesn’t happen all of the time. I don’t love the method because it can be different. On the Birthful Podcast, we talk about how people sometimes carry longer. That doesn’t mean that they’re super, super, super overdue. It just means that they have carried longer. In her blog, she talks about a person that had a 44-day cycle so she may have been viewed as 42 weeks or 41 weeks + 2 days, but really, she was 40 weeks. So we were adding a week and two days onto this due date and we’re telling people that we’re got a higher chance of stillbirth and things like that but really because of her long cycle, she is 40 weeks. It’s just so hard. It’s so hard. I mean, there is research and this blog is amazing but even then, it’s hard. But we do want to talk about the risks of going past your due date. What risks, Sydney, did people tell you about going past your due dates? For you and baby, was there anything said that was very specific like, “If you go one more day, this is going to happen or more than likely to happen?” Sydney: The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is the meconium and the risk of baby aspirating and then also just the general risk of stillbirth going up after 42 weeks were the two obvious things that I remember. Meagan: Yeah. That is correct. The risk of moderate or thick meconium increases every week starting at 38 weeks. It’s interesting. We don’t know exactly why a baby has a bowel movement in utero all the time. Sometimes it’s due dates. Maybe sometimes it’s stress or a really fast transition or whatever. They just do. We don’t know exactly why all of the time, but it does seem to peak between that 38-42 weeks. It’s 3% at 37 weeks, 5% at 38 weeks, 8% at 39 weeks, 13% at 40, 17% at 41 and 18% at 42 weeks. An 18% chance that a baby may have a bowel movement within that 42 weeks. 18% might sound really, really high but to some people, they’re like, “Okay, well if it happens.” Then like you were saying, we worry about the risk of aspiration. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. If it does, sometimes we have other issues. Another risk for infants is the increased chances of NICU admission. They were the lowest at 39 weeks at 3.9% and rose up to 7.2% at 42 weeks. Again, some people may look at that and say, “That’s enough for me to have a baby at 39 weeks.” Some people might be like, “7.2%. I’ll take the chances.” It’s a totally personal preference. One of the other risks, and when I say risks, I’m really putting quotations around this because it’s one of those eye-rollers for me. It’s a big baby. A lot of providers will say, “Oh, your baby is going to get way big. You might not be able to have that vaginal birth.” Especially with VBACs, it’s like, “Last time, your baby was larger.” Let’s say last time your baby was 8 pounds, but this time it could be really big if you keep going. It shows that for greater than 9 pounds, 15 ounces rose during 38 weeks which is 0.5%, and then doubled at 42 weeks which is 6%. But I mean, we recorded a story last week with Morgan whose baby was 10 pounds, 12 ounces. Big babies still come out and they’re just fine. It’s hard to hear the risk of the big baby because why are we shaming these babies? It’s fine if they’re big. It’s fine if they’re chunky. We love when they’re chunky. And then some of the risks of having a lower APGAR score or stillbirth. The stillbirth I think is probably one of the most intense risks that we look at. It’s the scariest risk for obvious reasons. It says, “Absolute risk is an actual risk of something happening to you. For example, if the absolute risk of having a stillbirth at 41 risks was 1.7 out of 1000, then that means that 1.7 mothers of 1000 or 17 out of 10,000 will experience a stillbirth.” So you hear that and it’s very scary. Then it says, “Relative risk is the risk of something happening to you in comparison to somebody else. If someone said that the risk of a stillbirth at 42 weeks compared to 41 weeks was 94% higher, then that sounds like a lot but some people may consider that that actual or absolute risk is still quite low at 1.7 versus 3.2.” We’ve had a post like this. It actually stirred up a lot of angst because we talked about some absolute risk and some relative risk and actual risk, but really it can be very scary to hear a 94% higher chance than a 3.2% chance. Ultimately, yes. There are risks of stillbirth the longer we go. There are risks of placental issues or infections in moms because there is a whole other category of risks for moms that we a lot of the time don’t talk about too much. But yeah. It’s just a matter of what is best for you. At the beginning of the podcast, you said, “I haven’t met a lot of people who have carried as long as me.” I was telling you that in eight and a half years of being a doula, I have had one client specifically– I’ve had some 42-weekers at one or two days, but one client specifically who went 43 weeks and 1 day. It started at 40 weeks. Her provider was like, “You have to induce. You have to induce. You have to induce. She was like, “No, I don’t want to.” Then at 41 weeks, the same thing happened. “You have to induce.” At 42 weeks, she was like, “I’m over it. I don’t want to be here anymore.” She called me and she was like, “I’m changing providers. Does that change anything?” Her home was farther away from me than her hospital location so she was like, “I’m changing providers. Does that change anything to do with you supporting me? Because I need to know if I need to find a provider closer to you or if you’ll come to me.” I’m like, “Yeah. I’ll go wherever you go.” So she called I think it was the next day. At this point, she was 42 weeks + 1 day. She was like, “I found a provider. She’s out here by me. She’s going to support me.” I’m like, “Okay, great.” She goes to 42 weeks and the doctor is like, “We’re going to do two non-stress tests this week. We’re just going to check.” They did and they were like, “Everything’s great. No problem. Baby might be on the larger side, but other than that, everything’s looking great.” At the next one, she was like, “Yep. Everything’s looking good.” She’s now at 42 weeks and 5 days. I’m like, “Wow.” This is the first and this is in the very beginning of my doula career. I’m like, “Does this really happen? What is happening?” I was feeling nervous because I still didn’t know much then. Anyway, at 43 weeks or the day before 43 weeks, she went to her provider and they were like, “You’re really not showing a ton of progress. You’re barely effaced. You’re maybe a centimeter.” Sydney: Oh my gosh. So triggering for me. Meagan: Yes. Well and for her, she was like, “I’m never going to have a baby.” She said that. She was anxious. She was like, “I think I’m going to be pregnant forever.” I’m like, “No, you’re not going to be pregnant forever.” But you can understand where she’s coming from. Sydney: Yeah. I just don’t believe that people go into labor on their own. I just don’t get that concept. Meagan: Yeah because of your situation which I totally understand. Yeah. They were like, “How about you come in tomorrow? Let’s do this. Let’s induce this labor. Let’s have this baby.” So she called me and I was like, “Yeah, do it if you want to.” We went over everything so she was like, “Yeah, okay. I’m going to do it.” She actually started contracting through the night and we were like, “Oh, she’s going into labor.” I do think she was actually going into labor because we went in. She had only progressed another half a centimeter but she was contracting. I wouldn’t say that they were anything too crazy strong or anything but they were there. But then they did induce the labor with those contractions and at 43 weeks + 1 day, she had a really chunky little boy. Everything was really great. Nothing was wrong. He did have meconium. He pooped. They believe that he pooped on the way out so he wasn’t super gray or anything but yeah. It’s just very interesting. It’s very, very interesting. Due dates are interesting and it might be a hangup for you for a long time. Sydney: Mhmm. I always was so curious about this and they said, “We think you’re probably just one of those women that if we let you go, you would naturally go to 43 or 44 weeks. Some women just carry longer. Some women carry shorter. Everyone is different.” Meagan: Yep. Yep. I keep thinking Gayle. Gayle is what is coming to my mind for the podcast with Birthful. She talks about that. Some people just go to 43 and 44 weeks. It’s crazy but again, back to what was in that study on Rebecca Dekker’s blog is that it’s not that she was 42 or 43 weeks. That’s where the hangup in my mind comes from. This is where she is based on her last period based on this calculation that Google does or the little wheel. My doctor back in the day had a little wheel to tell me when I was due. That doesn’t mean that that’s when my baby is due and it doesn’t mean that I had that 28-day cycle and I ovulated at day 14. Really, that’s my hang-up in my head. What more can we do with these due dates? How can we calculate these due dates better because, in my opinion, induction is also really, really high? We’ve got a high Cesarean rate, a high induction rate, and a lot of people going in. Induction is just fine if that’s what you are wanting but a lot of people are getting that pressure to induce and they are getting these scary things being said. Let’s figure out what these due dates and these guesstimation dates really mean. Honestly, there is not enough evidence without induction and stuff like that, I don’t think, to really, really, really, really know what the average length of pregnancy is. Sydney: Yeah, that’s probably a good point because people just don’t go that long. They get induced. Meagan: Yeah, they just don’t. In your mind, you’re like, “I wholeheartedly do not believe that anyone can go into spontaneous labor. I don’t get it,” because you’ve had two experiences and it makes sense. You’re welcome to feel that way but at the same time, it’s like what is missing here? Like your midwife said, “You’re probably one of those that we would let you go and you would go.” But does that really mean you’re 44 weeks? Does that mean you’re 41 or are you actually 42 at that point?”Sydney: Yeah. We do plan to have more at some point, but I’m going to track my cycle consistently and track the actual conception date if I can and make sure I know exactly when and probably even do an early ultrasound which I haven’t done before just because it’s always the question people want to ask. “Well, are you sure about your due date? Are you sure about your cycle?” I can’t be 100% sure about my cycle but I can be 100% sure about when my last period was. I know what that is. Yeah. I field that question a lot. Meagan: You know, it’s an interesting thing that just popped into my head. Remember when I told you earlier that I’ve had an early term, a full term, and a late term? With my third baby, we were crazy. We were trying for a boy specifically and my friend was like, “Read this book.” I was like, “I’m going to follow this to a T.” We had two girls and my husband was like, “This is the last. You have one more try to get your VBAC.” He was really, really stern on this one more baby. I was like, “Okay, fine.” I was waiting for him. Before he was ready, I started temping. I mean, going more extreme. It consumed me a little bit but I really got familiar with my body because I really wanted to try for this boy. Anyway, so I had temped and done everything. We conceived. I knew almost the hour. It was ridiculous. It was absolutely ridiculous. I knew exactly when I got pregnant and I was 41 weeks, 5 days but with my first, they said that my due date originally was October 26th and then she was measuring small so then they bumped it up to November 6th, 10 days later. She ended up coming November 4th but then I wondered, “Was I early? Was I late? What was I?” because I wasn’t tracking. With my second, she came at 38 weeks, 5 days so it makes me wonder there too because I wasn’t really paying attention but I felt very pregnant. But then she was small so they were like, “No, it was totally fine.” I’m like, “She was measuring small from the very beginning.” It always makes me wonder. Maybe I was closer to the 40-week mark or maybe I was almost 41 weeks. I don’t know. It’s fascinating. Sydney: It is, yeah. Meagan: And it’s hard. It’s hard because we don’t know and we are only trying to do what’s best. We are only trying to do what we are given the information on. As always, we have to follow our gut and decide what’s best for us. We’ll make sure to include those studies. If you guys are listening and you find this interesting too, go down to the show notes. Find it. Read them. Listen to the podcast. It’s a really, really great episode. Anyway Sydney, thank you so much. Sydney: Thank you for having me on. Meagan: Thank you for bringing this conversation to the table because it’s not one that we talk a lot about. But I’m sure you’ve got some frustration. Like you said, “It’s kind of triggering to hear that.” Sydney: Yeah. It’s not fair that I have to do all of this work before I actually go into labor. We’ll see what I do for the next one. I’ve said, “I’m not going to do anything. I’m just going to get induced at 42 weeks.” But I’m sure when the next one comes along, I’ll be like, “No, I really want to try and do it naturally.”Meagan: Let’s do the castor oil again. There are some ways to naturally induce like breast stimulation or sex and starting sex earlier on or evening primrose oil and things like that. Things that we can start doing at 38 weeks leading up. But even then, it’s not a guarantee and sometimes it can be frustrating when you’re like, “I’m doing all of the things. I’m taking castor oil and I’ve puked it back up three times and I’m still not having a baby.” Sydney: Yes. Well at this point, it will probably be a matter of, “I’m just going to trust my body. My body knows. My baby knows when they’re ready to come out.” I just need to follow my intuition and weigh that risk like you talked about. Meagan: Yeah. Sydney: Yeah, but we’ll see. I don’t have to worry about it yet. I’m not rushing it. Meagan: You don’t. You don’t. You don’t have to worry about it but keep grabbing the information so then you’ll be prepared. Sydney: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Meagan: Awesome. Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan’s bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. 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