13. Midwife Clare’s birth stories — from unplanned caesarean section through to choosing when and how to birth by caesarean

Birth Choices

In this episode we speak with private midwife Clare from @tobirthbeautifully_ about the births of her four boys by caesarean section, and her various experiences of both labour and theatre. Choosing midwifery-led care (via MGP) for her first pregnancy, Clare takes us through her first labour and birth, and the choices she made which she feels contributed to her first caesarean section, setting the path for the three experiences that followed. Clare continued to seek a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) in her second, third and fourth pregnancies, while also developing her preferences around caesarean section. For the birth of her fourth baby earlier this year, by then a privately practising midwife with a passion for homebirth, Clare considered homebirth, before ultimately choosing private obstetric care with a provider who respected and honoured the very clear preferences she had for not only the timing of her caesarean (and her desire to labour), but for the caesarean itself and the management of both her and her baby. Clare reflects on how her experiences and development as a midwife contributed to the choices she made in her various pregnancies, labours and births, evolving alongside her and her practice. We touch on positive postpartum, the experience of honouring rest while wrestling with feelings of loneliness, and the self and external judgement that can come as a midwife birthing your babies by caesarean.

Links

• Visit Clare on Instagram and via her website
• Dr Sarah Buckley’s “How to have the best caesarean” and book “Gentle birth, Gentle Mothering”