Kara’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Kara, who is a mother of two. At the end of Kara’s first pregnancy, she was told to go in for an induction while her blood pressure was normal rather than waiting for it to get high again, despite only having had one high blood pressure reading several weeks beforehand. What her provider had said would be a “gentle induction” quickly cascaded into a cesarean. When Kara became pregnant again, her hospital VBAC plans turned into HBAC plans when covid hospital restrictions became widespread. When Kara’s water broke she didn’t experience any contractions for almost 2 full days, but being fully supported by her birth team, she went on to give birth to her baby in the comfort of her own home.

Join us as Kara shares her birth stories, how her experience as an athlete and powerlifter carried her through labor, the differences in the care that she received during her pregnancies, how she learned to say “no” during pregnancy, and how healing her HBAC was not only for her, but also for her husband after he got to catch and be the first person to touch his daughter. We also discuss the lack of informed consent when interventions are presented as something that needs to be done, discrepancies in due dates and how they can have a negative impact when scheduling inductions and cesareans, the importance of connecting with your birth team and interviewing multiple midwives and doulas when possible, and the way that postpartum depression has become normalized and dismissed in our society.

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This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.