Oct 3

“What’s A VBAC?”

“What’s a VBAC?” – Family Practice doctor during mother’s 6 month prenatal visit when the mother asked what the practice’s policy was on vaginal birth after cesarean.

69 people dislike these words.

There are 17 comments to this post.

Jenni had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 11:16 am (Quote)

Not. A. Good. Sign.

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Tenielle Reid had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 11:39 am (Quote)

Very Bad Attack of Children?

… That was bad. I apologise.

Why was she asking her GP anyway? Am I missing something?

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Erika Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 11:47 am Erika(Quote)

Because some people use family practice physicians for prenatal care and birth. For many people it’s a good compromise between getting care from a physician (which may be either preference or necessary depending on medical conditions, insurance, etc) and choosing an OB/GYN who, while a specialist in reproductive health, is also a surgeon, and may be more likely to jump to aggressive interventions or surgery to solve problems.

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Dreamy Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 11:49 am Dreamy(Quote)

Family Practitioners deliver babies. Those are pretty much your choices in birth in the US: OB, Midwife of some variety, FP or unassisted. Typically you find more FPs delivering in less-populated areas, but it’s not terribly uncommon. I don’t know the percentage, but it’s actually probably at least as common to have a FP deliver/catch one’s baby as a midwife– or close, or somewhere in that range. If 10% of American women see MWs, maybe 5-20% see FPs? I’m sure someone will come along with the actual number.

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Mindie Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 1:16 pm Mindie(Quote)

Where I live in Canada it is normal to see your Family Doctor for pre-natal care and some even do deliveries (Such as mine, she does all our care, pre-natal, labour & Delivery, Post-natal/pardum as well as generalized care for everything else). This is really normal here. Usually the only time your transferred to an actual OB is if your GP doesn’t do labour and delivery or your high risk.

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Jena Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 6:03 pm Jena(Quote)

My GP handled all of my pre- and post-natal care and my delivery. (In fact, my GP is married to my husband’s GP.) I live in British Columbia, in a town only accessible by ferry or plane. We have one OB in town (pop. 15,000), so he only sees those with higher risk pregnancies.

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Claire Reply:
October 5th, 2011 at 8:22 am Claire(Quote)

Just to add to the sharing of how people give birth, I thought I’d throw in the UK version too.

We don’t generally see the GP for pregnancy stuff, just for normal medical things that come up. We have a MW based from our GP (although they will cover a few surgeries in the area) who does the routine checks through pregnancy (BP, sonicaid, urine dipsticks) and they’ll be seen around 8, 16, 24 and I’m not sure after that as I don’t have normal pregnancies. They also do home births and postnatal care.

At about 12 weeks you’re seen at the hospital for booking in. You get your 12 week scan and they decide from your history which team you need to be under. Most people will be under midwife led care but if you or the baby or your previous baby are high risk then you’ll go to a team specialising in that (I see joint immunology/ rheumatology/ FMT).

You are then seen at 20 weeks for a scan and check up, usually seen by a midwife, even if you’re under consultant led care but you may also see your consultant or one of the registrars if you’re being monitored.

Babies are delivered by midwives, obstetricians will do the rounds whilst you’re in labour and will see you if there’s a problem or if you’re a high risk birth.

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Jane had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 11:56 am (Quote)

Question: did the FP just not know the pronunciation of VBAC? Because until I actually heard people saying VEE-BACK I always read the acronym as “vee-bee-ay-see.”

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Mama Wrench Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 1:13 pm Mama Wrench(Quote)

That was my first thought, too — I’ve met obstetricians who’ve never referred to it as “VBAC” but obviously know what a vaginal birth after cesarean is!

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Rachel K Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 9:06 am Rachel K(Quote)

This. I can see the FP having a moment of, “Wait, vee-back? Oh, hang on a second . . . that would be spelled V-B-A-C . . . OK, I got it.”

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Liz had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 12:26 pm (Quote)

I used a family practitioner for my last birth. One thing to remember is that FPs don’t do c-sections. They have to call in an OB when complications go beyond their training. So while it is sad the FP doesn’t know what a vbac is, it is good to remember that the FP only attends vaginal births. FPs are a great comprimise if you can’t get a midwife. My FP was so great.

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LG had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 2:57 pm (Quote)

This made me laugh, but only because I heard it in Ralph Wiggum’s voice. As in, “What’s a diorama?”

And then I went *headdesk*.

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Tee had this to say, Oct 3, 2011 @ 3:06 pm (Quote)

I really hope the Mom ran… and I mean RAN… away from this doctor!

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Lil had this to say, Oct 4, 2011 @ 9:43 am (Quote)

I had the midwives at the hospital’s day assessment unit ask me what a HBA2C was when they spotted it written in the first sentence of my birth plan…I told them. There was a pause, one midwife said ‘oh what a horrid term! Can’t you just write home birth with trial of scar?’. I replied that I found that a far worse term. Then another midwife piped up ‘but you’re not allowed a home birth for a trial of scar’ and the third midwife said ‘hold on after TWO c-sections? No, sorry you’ve got you’re wired crossed, I’m not sure you are even allowed to fall pregnant after 2-sections…your scar could burst from 20 weeks onwards, so you’d need an early c-section and stay in hospital from 20 weeks gestation’. The 2nd midwife decided to call my OB to ask what to do. ‘Who’s your OB?’ ‘I haven’t got one. I fired the last two and threatened to report them to the board of governors’…All 3 midwives looked worried at this point and called in the supervisor of midwives, he popped his head round the door, ‘oh hello! You in to collect your blood results? I’ll sort that for you…hopefully I’ll be there for your homebirth, if not, please let me know how things went.’. He left, with all 3 midwives looking even more confused! I was around 36 weeks at that point, so it was obvious all the stay in hospital from 20 weeks was a load of rubbish, but how many less informed mums do they panic?!

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Kate, Ren's mama Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 9:52 am Kate, Ren's mama(Quote)

Holy cats! That is some story! You’re “not allowed” to become pregnant after 2 sections? Hospitalization from 20 weeks on?! What planet have these midwives been working on? I’m so glad that the supervisor seems to have some sense.

Hope your HBA2C went beautifully!

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