In 2010 when I became pregnant with my first child I immersed myself in all of Ina May Gaskin's books- in addition to watching The Business of Being Born.

 

Though I was armed with this knowledge being in the hospital put me in a vulnerable position and after a "stalled labor" (which was truly due to a room full of family members and staff) I ended up with a slew of interventions and a cesarean section.

 

When I was pregnant with my second child I was adamant that this wouldn't happen again and advocated for myself to the point of even switching care providers after 20 weeks. I had my first VBAC in the hospital system and it was wonderful and wildly different than my first birth.

 

8 years later when planning for the birth of our third child I found myself once again frustrated with the medical system- as at 30 weeks pregnant I was told I couldn't have a hospital midwife in attendance, due to my being a TOLAC (trial of labor after cesarean).

 

I made the switch to The Bozeman Birth Center at 30+ weeks and experienced a completely different environment than I'd had in the hospitals. Suddenly my birth was something I was actively a part of.

 

I had a beautiful experience that ended with our sweet 2nd sucessful VBAC arriving just 2 days before the midwives legally would have had to transfer me back to the hospital.

 

The difference between this experience and my previous VBAC were profoundly different and if I could go back in time I would have opted for this model of birth from the beginning.