ACOG VBAC Guidelines Oct 17 - Where to give birth

Naturelle Vbac™ |
Apr 18, 2018
3 min read

It's finally here! Released on my 31st Birthday. I mean what a treat. Although, Just for the record I do not celebrate birthdays, lol.

It's always excellent news to see new guidelines that support Vaginal Births After Caesareans.

The October 2017 VBAC guidelines have been released by ACOG, and It's great to see more recommendations to provide more clarity on VBACs, and whether its a safe options for mothers to consider.

I believe we still need to get these recommendations seasoned into many Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Canada, USA, Malaysia and the rest of the non supportive VBAC world, because the battle is still in the embryonic stages, but, I feel we are making headway, and hopefully, we can expect a positive future where VBACs are concerned

Where to have a VBAC

The 2017 guidelines recommend women should attempt a VBAC in a maternal care facility that can manage uncomplicated births if they are capable of performing emergency deliveries.

This is exciting because lots of women have difficulty getting their care providers to accept their request to have a VBAC in a non restrictive setting such as the home from home suite or a birthing centre.

The recommendations continue on from the 2015 ACOG Maternal Care document allowing women to have access to level 1 maternal care facilities such as a birthing centre or the equivalent that has the facilities to accommodate a uterine rupture or any other birth emergency.

In the 2010 ACOG recommendations they advised women to give birth in a setting such as a hospital, where medical staff can attend to the mother and provide an emergency caesarean.

The 2017 recommendations provide more choices for women under a less restrictive birthing method and have provided more clarity for the unsupportive care providers who tell mothers they MUST give birth in a hospital labour ward . .

We can still see from the 2017 guidelines, ACOG know the majority of women who plan for a VBAC end up having them. Their statistics show between 60-80 percent of women successfully have a vaginal birth after caesarean.

I'm so excited because the new VBAC guidelines explain that when a woman avoids a repeat c-section, and has a VBAC, she avoids the following:

1. Major abdominal surgery

2. Lower risk of hemorrhage

3. Lower risk of blood clots and infections

4. Shorter recovery stage

5. Reduces the risk of maternal mortality in future pregnancies due to repeat c-sections being performed.

The guidelines make it very clear that although the VBAC rate is rising with a 23 percent increase, we still need to acknowledge the fact that the c-section rate is also rising very fast.

As we already know the topic VBAC is still an under researched topic that many professionals are trying hard to establish a better understanding of. This will only happen if more research is conducted and if more VBAC cases are correctly recorded.

The 2017 guidelines make it clear that all mothers need to be well informed and this decision should involve the obstetrician and the mother. The guidelines, clearly, have been produced to allow women a fair chance to have a successful, safe outcome.

If you would like to know what you can do to have a VBAC, please contact us here at Naturelle VBAC so we can support your choices and possibly find you a VBAC Practitioner to attend your birth.

Please contact us to find out how we

can support your VBAC journey

VBAC should be seen as a normal, physiological birth and women should not be scared to choose a VBAC. But if you feel scared about your VBAC choice, please take a look here: Are you feeling scared about your VBAC. Remember, Rupture happens in under 1% of VBAC births and you have an extremely good chance to have a VBAC so why not checkout : Tips to have a successful VBAC.

If you need inspiration and you feel like you cant do it, checkout my VBAC birth story here: With all the odds against me, my VBAC wasn't post

Or you can Checkout my other VBAC birth story. I had 2x VBA2C and my story is here: No support no empowerment, my VBAC.

An exercise you can do which I did during my VBAC, can be found here: Breath for your VBAC.

Are you looking for VBAC antenatal classes?? If so, you don't need to look no more. Look here: Are you a Birth professional, doula, midwife, childbirth educator or a hypnobirthing instructor or just interested in VBAC??? We have something special for you, click here: VBAC Support Practitioner Training