It must be your lucky week, because you’ll be hearing from me TWICE! Oh yeahhhh! (yes, the gender reveal is tomorrow, and clearly I’ll be writing a post about it).

But today I’m thinking less about pink vs. blue and more about logistics. Namely… VBAC.

For those of you not familiar, VBAC is the fun acronym used to describe a “vaginal birth after c-section.” Assuming everything continues to go well, I fully intend to attempt this. There are several reasons why:

-I really, really want to experience childbirth. The entirety of my birth plan for Molly was “not a c-section.” Obviously, that didn’t go to plan. But for good reason.
-I am the eldest of 5 children, and I was actually a c-section. All 4 of the others were not. So my mom really set the precedent for VBAC success for me.
-My doctor said I was a good candidate for it. Everything about Molly’s labor was going fantastically (until it wasn’t). Good transitions, nice wide pelvis, etc, etc.
-The risk of uterine rupture (the first thing I picture when I think of complications) is less than 1% with a low-transverse uterine incision.
-Shorter recovery time.
-I’ll immediately get to bond with my baby, not get a quick peek at him/her and then have to wait an hour to actually hold him/her.
-If all goes to plan, this will not be my last pregnancy. And the more c-sections you have, the less likely you are to have a successful VBAC.
-My chance of having another placental abruption is only minimally increased since I’ve already had one.
-If anything goes wrong, I know a c-section is still an option. I trust my OB/GYN and was impressed with how well everything was handled with my first delivery.

I’ve been researching this extensively every since I found out I was pregnant. I feel like the Dr. Internet has been overwhelmingly supportive of VBACs, and like most sites I’ve been on have been trying to talk me into it, not out of it. Obviously that’s not why I’m doing it – the biggest reason is because my doctor herself was so supportive – but it did feel good to see that most people were pro-VBAC, dispelling myths and whatnot.

I think the thing giving me pause is that the births will only be 17 months apart, and all of the literature I’ve seen recommends waiting 18 months before attempting a VBAC. Now, is 1 month realllly going to make a huge difference? I doubt it. But I wish I wasn’t on the borderline like that. My sister and I are 5 years apart (plus, my mom had me at 21. So I’m pretty sure her body bounced back a lot quicker than mine did).

And I’ll be even more disappointed if this does end up a c-section because everyone says scheduled sections are much easier than unscheduled. But still, it’s worth the gamble to me.

Any insight? Even if you have a horror story, please share. Like I said, the internet is full of encouragement, and I know there must be another side to it…