My First Pregnancy (2014)

Spontaneous labour, preeclampsia, epidural for blood pressure after 7cm, 3 hours pushing, bub direct posterior position, failed vacuum, emergency c-section under GA for failed epidural, didn’t meet my son for 5 hours post-birth due to high BP in recovery, diagnosed with PTSD from feeling sensation during CS, PPD/PPA although didn’t feel this effected bonding.

Successful Twin VBAC: This pregnancy

I had always planned that if I were to get pregnant again, I would have a homebirth with a private midwife and stay as far away as possible from the hospital. I ended up with the complete opposite once I found out I had MCDA (one placenta, dividing membrane) twins! Initially, I thought I’d have an elective CS because the pregnancy itself would be high risk, but then I cried about that for hours because I knew this would be my last pregnancy and felt like I would never know if I could have a vaginal birth.

I am a midwife, so I feel like maybe I didn’t get all the scare tactics and felt supported for a VBAC by most of the doctors I saw providing twin 1 was head down. An epidural was strongly recommended, which was difficult for me to decide on as I felt my son’s malpresentation in my first birth was most likely caused by an epidural. Still, a lot of my PTSD came from having a general and not seeing my son be born, so I thought if I at least had an epidural in place, I would be able to be awake if I needed a CS.

I ended up being diagnosed with a short cervix at 17 weeks and went on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. I had a cervical stitch placed at 23 weeks, spent a long time in hospital on bed rest, and had multiple episodes of preterm labour that we managed to stop with medication.

Successful Twin VBAC: The Birth

32+4 weeks gestation I woke up at around 2 am with a tightening and needing to pee which was normal as I had painful tightenings every day. As I was on the toilet, I had another one that felt stronger than they usually did. I went back to bed and had another one and thought I was not going to time then but looked at the time so I could see how far apart they were. I shut my eyes, then another one came, and I looked at the time, and it had only been 3 minutes.

Then another one came 3 minutes later, so I got up and went to sit on the toilet. They kept coming, and when I would have one, I was like shit, I need to be at the hospital right now, but then it would pass. I’m like, no, it’s fine. I wanted to sleep (I also hate hospitals), then another one came, and I was like, nope, it’s happening!

So woke partner and called mum to come over and headed into the hospital. Once at the hospital, speculum showed cervix was closed, and stitch was holding, so started the usual medication protocol of trying to stop labour. To me, it felt different this time, and I knew it wasn’t going to work. I continued contracting 3-4 in 10 mins and had another spec around 6 am, and the cervix was still closed. But I was exhausted and emotional and just wanted the stitch removed because I knew it wasn’t going to stop as we’d finished all the nifedipine doses I could have.

I’d also started to have some pink discharge. I took the monitors off to shower as I technically wasn’t in “active labour”, which was helpful! When I put the monitors back on, I started using the gas. I then started having some red bleeding, so the doctors were called back and decided to remove the stitch.

The stitch removal was super traumatic because, by this stage, I was having intense contractions. It was a difficult removal, so I just sucked on the gas and mentally took myself elsewhere. I thought that I’d get the stitch removed, then get an epidural, and we would get to have some sleep as we’d only had like 2 hours sleep! But Twin 1s waters broke during the removal, and once the stitch was out, I went straight to 8-9cm!

We quickly called the anaesthetist for an epidural, and as I was sitting on the bed for the placement, I could feel the first twins head moving down. I was being told not to push, but it was completely uncontrollable! They placed the epidural and pushed through a test dose, which wasn’t effective because her head was there. So no time for sleep, and I started pushing straight away.

NICU had come, and at this point, I started getting really overwhelmed and felt like I was a zoo animal being watched. After a couple of pushes, my amazing midwife asked everyone to leave as it wasn’t going to happen in the next 10 minutes, so it went back to less people.

I found pushing twin one mentally challenging for multiple reasons.

1. I couldn’t switch my midwife’s brain, and I could hear that one of the babies heart rates was dropping (twin two)
2. I kept thinking it would be the same as my son, and I was going to end up in the operating theatre again after all this
3. It fricking hurt and all I could think was I had to do this again!!

My midwife got me out of this rut by taking a photo on my phone of bub’s head just sitting there. After, my midwife said, you are having this baby vaginally no matter what! I started having sharp pain on the right side of my scar during pushing, but it went away with the contraction. I was beginning to stress that I was going to rupture, but nothing came from this.

The ring of fire was very real, and I felt like that lasted a reallllyyyy long time! The first bub was born at 4:20 pm. She cried at birth and had a quick cuddle before going off to NICU.

Twin two was born at 4:30 pm, after just a couple of pushes. She came out with a compound hand! We had another quick cuddle then she followed her sister to NICU.

I had a labial graze, and a first-degree tear sutured. I was on such a birth high!

It’s a Successful Twin VBAC. Recovery was amazing! Don’t get me wrong. I was uncomfortable, probably more so from all the speculum and stitch removal, but eased with  Panadol and ice. And in comparison to my caesarean birth recovery, it was a walk in the park! It also made the NICU journey so much easier being able to walk to and from and drive myself up there!

The girls are both still in hospital but will hopefully be coming home next week! The pregnancy and NICU journey was awful, particularly in Sydney during a pandemic. But, the birth was so healing, and I think I would do that over and again! That’s my story of a Successful Twin VBAC. ❤️

Published 26th September 2021