I so enjoyed the VBAC Class last Friday and hope those who attended did too. A special thanks to those who drove over an hour to come. While scheduled to be an hour, my presentation ended up being 2.5 hours! After cutting it down for a couple weeks, I couldn’t cut any more. I apologize to the people who couldn’t stay for the whole thing due to small children at home. Perhaps you can come to the next class.
I said at the end of the class that I would post the PowerPoint presentation to the site, but have since decided against that. About 3/4 of the information was not in the PowerPoint and I think many of the slides could be misunderstood without the additional commentary such as charts of uterine rupture rates from studies that induced their subjects. The fact that the study induced isn’t on the slide, so someone could look at that slide and think that it reflected the rate of rupture in spontaneous labors, which is at least 50% lower. However, I will be publishing a bibliography in the next week or so, so look out for that.
Classes throughout 2009 are already in the works. I’m planning three more classes within Southern California with the next class in either West LA or Orange County. If you would like a class in your city, please leave a comment.
I think a Saturday afternoon from 1p – 4p would work better than a Friday evening. People don’t have to fight traffic and I think it’s easier to be away from small children during the day. I’d love to get some feedback on this. When would be your preferred time?
I would also like to encourage women who are not pregnant yet to attend the classes. It’s almost to late to wait until you are actually pregnant to start learning about VBAC and your options. I think the ideal timetable is to devourer the website, come to a class, read some of the books that I recommend, and start compiling names of who you want to hire for your birth, all before you start trying to conceive.
Finding a good hospital, OB/midwife, doula, childbirth class (Bradley? Hypnobabies? Birthing from Within?), and then finding a childbirth instructor, can be time intensive and having that information together before you get pregnant gives you a distinct advantage. Then when you get pregnant, you have a plan, you have less questions and the opportunities for you to get off track are minimized.
If you wait until you get pregnant, the pressure is on and the clock is ticking. With so much misinformation about VBAC abound, you could be lead to believe that there are no VBAC supportive providers in your area, or that VBAC is inherently dangerous, or just fall into the comfort of your current OB who “doesn’t do VBACs.” Or worse, your OB could be one who offers a Circus Act VBAC, meaning that they want you to jump through 32 hoops in order to qualify for a VBAC. However, since you haven’t done your preparation, you don’t recognize this for what it is, and you are lead down the road to a repeat cesarean all the while thinking you have a real opportunity to VBAC.
So, this is my way of telling you, if you plan on having more children and you’ve had a cesarean, please come to the next class no matter where you are in the procreation timeline: planning, thinking, trying, or already with a bun in the oven.
i was unable to make the class last friday although i had intended to. i would love to attend a class in the los angeles area in the future. i second your idea about a saturday class- much better time for most. I live in the pasadena area but would be able to drive to west la if need be. thank you for all your work on this important issue.
I really want to attend your class in orange county. I am not pregnant yet but want to be fully prepared long before. Saturday would be better
I want to have a vbac on this upcoming pregnancy. Would love to hear what you have to share with us. We are in the Granada Hills area. Looking forward to your insight and support for VBAC.