I don’t have the constitutional fortitude for a home birth either. My first daughter was late…my OB said “I’ll be on call this weekend, why don’t you come in for an induction if she hasn’t arrived yet,” to which I said “YES!!!” Luckily, I was already 2 centimeters dilated when they started the Pitocin, and the whole affair took 8 hours from start to finish, 9am-6:45pm. It couldn’t have gone much smoother actually, the equivalent of one day at the office. So, of course I thought that #2 would go smoothly as well. Everything was going great with the pregnancy, and then my water broke unexpectedly, 10 days early, at 10pm at night. So, of course, we had to go to the hospital unexpectedly and cart my daughter off to my mom’s house at 11pm at night. Then, I didn’t go into labor…so, finally was induced and baby was born 27 hours and two nights of lost sleep later. #2 birth was harder than the first because I was so much more tired. But, I survived two inductions and two epidurals with no complications, so I guess I should count myself lucky.

Hi Paula- Thanks so much for that link. I think if I’d had a breech baby and that was the reason for my c-section I may have been more willing to try a VBAC (although I probably would not have gone the home birth route). I think after one traumatic birth scenario that was not due (completely) to hospital intervention, I was reluctant to trust that things would go completely smoothly at home. (And there was no way in hell my husband would allow it after watching the horror show we experienced with #1). Good luck and safe delivery of baby #2! Let us know how it goes!

Heh, the plan was “get the baby out healthy and with as little trauma to everyone involved as possible”. So yes, in both cases. First one was a post-date induction. Second one was a 39 week due to my health induction. Dr. suspects after witnessing my heartrate and BP tank with each contraction with both children that my body does NOT react normally to pain. What I experienced seems to match the family stories too – up til the early 1900s, on particular branch of the tree had at least one death in childbirth per generation/immediate family.