EP22 - Zelda's VBA3C (young mum, unplanned pregnancy, gestational hypertension, emergency caesarean, planned VBAC, repeat emergency caesarean, planned elective repeat caesarean, private midwife, vbac)

We are so excited to bring you the incredible Zelda's four epic birth stories for our 22nd episode!

First things first: We had a few technical struggles recording this episode, so please forgive the occasional glitchiness of the audio quality and consistency. We hope you will still experience the richness of Zelda's experiences as she shares them

It's not often we get to hear about VBA3C stories, and we are so grateful to bring you the second of these stories to the podcast with the incredible Zelda, who shares with us her experiences of planning for a vaginal birth with her first baby, the trauma of her journey to an emergency caesarean and the serious challenges that followed with a baby who didn't feed.

Zelda went on to plan a VBAC with her second baby, only to be thwarted again and find herself with a second caesarean. This time, she knew a lot more and demanded skin-to-skin with her baby, and latching and feeding in theatre, and both this bub and her third bub who was born via a planned elective caesarean, she had much smoother feeding and postpartum experiences with.

However, when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her fourth baby, her first son, she knew she wasn't going to accept another elective caesarean as her only option, and she sought out the support of a private midwife with hospital admitting rights.

Zelda shares her powerful and redemptive VBA3C with her biggest baby (a healthy 5kg baby boy!) and how she reclaimed her power and her faith in her mind and body in doing so.

Thank you, Zelda, we can't wait to hear what you all think!

Please join us on our journey to bringing you all kinds of VBAC stories from across the country from here on in by subscribing and following us on social media, @australianvbacstories on Instagram and Australian VBAC Stories on Facebook. 

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If you are feeling that you might benefit from mental health support after listening to our podcast, please reach out to one of the organisations below:

PANDA https://panda.org.au/

Gidget Foundation https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/

COPE Australia https://www.cope.org.au/

If you've experienced mistreatment or disrespectful care in your pregnancy, birth or postpartum and are seeking advocacy support, please contact one of the following organisations:

Maternity Choices Australia https://www.maternitychoices.org/

Maternity Consumer Network https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/

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