Vaginal birth after Myo

[Guest guest]

Giselle,

Please email me offlist as I'd like the number of Dr. West - please - I'd

love to send him my records & get his opinion as to whether my c-sec after

the myomectomy was actually the safer way to go. I am in NJ so not far from

him either! I really need to speak with him because they entered my uterine

cavity for the myomectomy but down low in the back... & no one would approve a

vbac so I had my 3rd child by c-sec ealier this year. I have been searching

for someone to get a REAL opinion on this & he sounds like the one!!!

Please email me with his info (I'll be going out soon but will check email

back later today).

Thank you so much & congratulations on your pregnancy!!

Michele

[Guest guest]

Hi all. I wanted to share an update on my story with the group and

let you know what is going on.

I had a myo last year with Dr. Stanley West in NYC. There was in

incision made in the top of my uterus and the uterine cavity was

entered.

I have subsequently become pregnant and am expecting my first child

at the beginning of January (yippee!!!!). As soon as I became

pregnant I called Dr. West's office to ask if there was anything I

needed to know. I was told then that I didn't need to have a C-

section and to have my doctor call if she had questions. I was

incredibly relieved until I met with my local doctor. My local

doctor saw the surgical report including the incision into the

uterine cavity and immediately told me that I'd have to have a C-

section. I asvised her about my conversation with Dr. West's office

and my doctor thought for sure he must be mistaken and that no doctor

would suggest a vaginal birth after myo. I conceded at that time,

but never let it go, instead I continued to ask her to call Dr.

West's office and discuss it with him.

They finally spoke and as of Tuesday I am being offered my choice of

C-section of vaginal delivery. Dr. West is currently doing a study

of women who have had myos with incisions all the way into the uterus

and has had 25 out of 25 successful deliveries. He believes that

since the antibiotics are better today than they were years ago, the

scars heal better and the chances of rupture are much lower than

currently believed. I am going to call him myself to ask a couple of

additional questions and will fill you in on that conversation too.

My doctor here in Chicago has been great and is willing to to a

vaginal trial if I would like to, so I have great support in this

decision. She told me that 10 out of 10 other doctors would advise a

C-section because as of today that is the standard of care. However,

it is not the only answer.

If I choose vaginal birth (which I am seriously leaning towards)I

will not be going through labor in a birthing suite but instead an

operating room. They will be monitoring me closely for any signs of

potential rupture and will be prepared to take the baby in a moments

notice.

I know that doing this makes me a bit of a guinea pig and if it goes

wrong it goes really wrong. However, I increcible confidence in Dr.

West and his work and I really think I'd like to give it a shot.

I'll let you know about the conversation with Dr. West and let you

know of my evenutal decision.

Good luck to all of you looking for your own answers.

Giselle

[Guest guest]

,

I have that book & others & researched vbac extensively & got myself a

midwife with doctor backup & was supposedly all ready to go for my vbac. They

denied it at the last minute citing that my myomectomy scar was in the back

of my uterus making it more risky. I have suspicions that the opinions were

skewed due to docs losing their malpractice insurance in my state. I had no

other options at the time so my 3rd child was born by c-sec. The problem is I

could find no info or research into myomectomy scars, which are usually in

different places than the c-sec scar, complicating the situation.

Regards,

Michele

[Guest guest]

> I wanted to share with you the name of a book called

> " Vaginal Birth after Cesserean. " In my mind a

> C-section or myo are pretty similar...and there have

> been tons of women who go on to have vaginal births.

,

Thanks so much for sharing your story with me. I completely agree

with you that a C-section and myo are very similar. So does Dr.

West. However, the medical community as a whole does not see it this

way. It is commonly understood that after a myo, especially a myo

with an incision at the top of the uterus (mine was on the very top)

the reccomened procedure is C-section. I did speak with Dr. West

yesterday who told me personally that he believes it is safe and that

in many years time, after many women do it, that the community will

change.

He told me that it was once commonly believed that once you had a C-

section all the following births would have to be C-sections too.

After women protested and wanted to try it anyway, they put women in

fully staffed operating rooms hooked up to all of the machines and

waited for the worst to happen. After years of successful vaginal

deliveries and the staff being sent away unused, they stopped doing

that and allowed women to deliver vaginally. He believes the exact

same thing will happen with myo over time.

I agree with him and told him I wanted to give it a shot. He told me

the hard part was going to be in finding a doctor that would agree to

buck the system and let me give it a shot. The good news is that my

current doctor said if I wanted to then she'd go along with it.

I am still going to check out the book you suggest. I expect it only

to comfort me even more about the decision.

Thanks for your input.

Giselle

[Guest guest]

> in many years time, after many women do it, that the community will

> change.

>

Giselle,

Best of luck to you. I had my first two children naturally and I can

attest that if you are not drugged and have the freedom to move

around it can be an incredible experience working with your body

instead of against it. The recovery is much easier and you can enjoy

your baby so much sooner.

I am looking at a myo in a few months and the thought of having a

scheduled C-section is hard for me to swallow. I hope that by the

time I'm ready to have another baby, having a natural birth after a

myo is no longer considered a high risk. It sounds like you will be

part of making that happen. : )

Take care,

Chris

[Guest guest]

I don't have personal experience with vaginal birth

but I would like to have one after myo and ttc.

However, in my mind, a myo is different than a

c-section birth because there are more than one

incision if more than one fibroid is removed (which is

quite common). I wonder how weak all these scars could

make the uterus and whether this would get in the way

of having a vaginal birth.

Anne-Marie

in NM

[Guest guest]

I just got back from my post-two week visit where I brought this up. My RE is a

bit on the conservative side and she told me no way, even though I only had

one incision, due to the number of fibroids removed and corresponding

sutures.

In fact she said that if I were to get pregnant, I would likely have to have a

c-

section at about 36 weeks or when the lungs were mature.

Having already had three kids vaginally, it's not that big of a deal to me,

except recovery time is a bit longer with the c-section. However, not going

through labor is appealing ...

> I don't have personal experience with vaginal birth

> but I would like to have one after myo and ttc.

> However, in my mind, a myo is different than a

> c-section birth because there are more than one

> incision if more than one fibroid is removed (which is

> quite common). I wonder how weak all these scars could

> make the uterus and whether this would get in the way

> of having a vaginal birth.

>

> Anne-Marie

> in NM

[Guest guest]

I am debating between UAE and laproscopic myomectomy.

When I spoke to the laproscopic myomectomy Dr. regarding why C-

section is required since women do have viginal birth after C-

section, and his response was the cut is higher up compared to C-

section is lower on the uterus, and the uterus is thinner when women

are pregrant. However, he did say very softly women in Europe do

have vaginal birth after the procedure. In US C-section is the norm

if any type of surgery has been performed on the uterus.

Regards

sruti

> > I don't have personal experience with vaginal birth

> > but I would like to have one after myo and ttc.

> > However, in my mind, a myo is different than a

> > c-section birth because there are more than one

> > incision if more than one fibroid is removed (which is

> > quite common). I wonder how weak all these scars could

> > make the uterus and whether this would get in the way

> > of having a vaginal birth.

> >

> > Anne-Marie

> > in NM