Adelaide Birth Photographer | Calvary Hospital North Adelaide | VBAC
It's always an exciting time to meet my next client. I try to meet them in the most comfortable place I can, in a convenient location around Adelaide. Getting to know someone in a short space of time, and being able to have a very private discussion about birth, sometimes trauma, fears, hopes and expectations, all take trust and security. The environment we talk in matters. The first time I met with Amanda, it was in her home, with her husband and son. I knew we'd need a private space, because I knew she would want to talk through her first birth experience and how she was preparing for a VBAC this time around.
As I stood waiting on her porch, Amanda opened the door, and we both instantly realised it wasn't the first time we'd met! We had in fact been friends 20 years earlier, when we used to work together and go clubbing!. What an exciting revelation!! The Adelaide Effect strikes again. We caught up on old times and shared stories of our current lives. It was fabulous and I was absolutely thrilled to be sharing in her journey to a healing birth with her second baby.
Amanda was so prepared this time around. She'd empowered herself with a Midwife and Doula for continuity of care. Her husband was 110% on board with her entire plan, birthing within the private hospital setting. Although I've not experienced a VBAC myself, I certainly know what it's like to dive deeply into your fears from the fall out of a first birth, so you can achieve some kind of healing for your second. Amanda undertook this, head on, with conviction, and smashed it for 6 (excuse the cricket analogy, my eldest plays it!)
As with almost every VBAC I've witnessed, there comes a point of confrontation, where the one birthing finds themselves face to face with their fears surrounding their own body's ability to birth a child. It's a huge, metaphorical wall between their past birthing experience and their future dream of a VBAC. That wall of fear usually leads them to making a choice for some kind of intervention, and the overwhelming feeling that their choice to succumb to such intervention will lead to a cascade that will ultimately doom their efforts for that VBAC. This cascade is NOT inevitable. It doesn't have to be this way at all. Options are fabulous. Informed options are the best. This is how it played out for Amanda, and she achieved the healing birth she had prepared for.
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