Before sharing my wonderful VBAC story, I first should share some background of how I ended up on this birth journey.

In 2000, on the day my fiancé, Mark, and I purchased our first home and exactly three months before our wedding, I was in a serious auto accident.

With extensive physical injuries and a brain injury, my initial prognosis for a "normal" life as I had known it was not optimistic. However, after two and a half years of care by a great team of specialists and extensive physical and occupational therapy, I was again able to drive and participate in household activities. I was able to work part time and finally had little pain in my daily life. And very importantly, I was able to discontinue the many medications I had been prescribed.

Mark and I were anxious to begin trying for our family, and were very happily surprised to become pregnant my first cycle off the pill.

I spent my pregnancy doing all that I could to support our baby's growth. I walked in our development and took a prenatal yoga class. I ate a very healthy diet, drank lots of water and eliminated caffeine and refined sugars.

Mark and I both felt that natural childbirth fit our lifestyle goals best and participated in a Bradley childbirth class. We also hired a doula experienced in drug-free birthing and got the support of our obstetrician to labor without an IV or continuous monitoring.

At 38 weeks of pregnancy, on a Saturday evening, I went into labor. Though my contractions were still quite far apart, they were very strong. I rested and dozed between them, then in the morning – a gorgeous sunny day – Mark and I went into the garden. I was having back pain, which we attributed to my previous injuries, and Mark was able to help relieve the pain through counter pressure.

At about 11 a.m. we went to the hospital, where I labored all day – literally. I progressed well to 7 centimeters dilated, but then began to experience cervical swelling that reduced my cervical opening to 5 centimeters.

At nearly midnight I agreed to have my membranes ruptured. At 1 a.m. there had been no change and I was becoming exhausted and emotionally distraught.

Mark had been amazing the entire time, actively applying counter pressure and offering wonderful emotional support.

An hour later, when I was still swollen to 5 centimeters, I requested and received an epidural. Unfortunately, the epidural caused heart rate distress in both me and the baby. At one point, even with oxygen and changes in positioning, my blood pressure dropped so low that it could not be measured. My obstetrician was called. With the epidural taking all of the pressure to push off (I had been having pushing contractions but the swelling prevented me from being able to push) the swelling had reduced and I was fully dilated with a cervical lip remaining.

The obstetrician allowed me to push for over two hours because the baby's heart rate was rebounding well after each deceleration. It was then that we discovered the back pain I had been experiencing was not in fact from my prior injuries, but rather from the baby being posterior. Artificially rupturing my membranes had made him asynclitic as well, with the side of his head presenting.

The obstetrician tried to manually turn his head, but without success. I tried pushing in a reclined position, on my side and using a squatting bar, but I made no progress at all, and was prepped for the Cesarean section.

At 7:53 a.m. my son, Gavin Jacob, was delivered by C-section. Though full-term and a good size (8 pounds, 5 ounces) he was unresponsive and had to be bagged in the operating room. His first Apgar score was only a 3, but thankfully he recovered well and his second Apgar was a 9. I also recovered relatively well, and Mark and I were so excited to have a healthy little boy.

When Gavin was nearing a year and a half, Mark and I decided that we were ready to add to our family. Again, we were fortunate to become pregnant right away. We returned to our obstetrician for my first appointment. He complimented my C-section scar and asked who had done it (obviously he neither remembered us nor had taken a moment to review our chart). He then looked over the notes from Gavin's labor and commented, "You don't want to go through that again."

Mark and I answered in the affirmative, to which the doctor offered to schedule our C-section. That caught us off-guard. We had been planning to try again for a natural vaginal birth. When we voiced that opinion, the doctor shrugged, turned his back to us and, as he wrote in my chart, said "As long as you know the risks."

I began researching VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) and joined an ICAN – a Cesarean awareness support group – chapter about an hour away. The more I researched, the less I felt that Gavin's C-section had "saved him" and the more I felt that my obstetrician's philosophy of interventions instead of working with my body had created the need for the C-section.

I became absolutely convinced that was what I wanted: a drug-free VBAC. I also began to feel that my best chance of having the birth experience I wanted was to find a doctor who was supportive of VBAC, and birthing in general. I also learned that the complications of cervical swelling that I had experienced were classic for a posterior labor and that there are things that can be done in labor to correct positioning. Unfortunately, rupturing membranes artificially makes it much harder for a baby to turn from a posterior presentation. I needed to find a doctor who did not promote interventions in labor.

After calling many people, I found the perfect doctor. When I called to inquire about his practice's VBAC policy, he returned my call personally and spent 20 minutes telling me why attempting an unmedicated VBAC was a good idea.

Instead of a birthing refresher class, Mark and I attended a VBAC seminar and I continued to read and attend ICAN meetings. By my final trimester I was feeling very confident. That is, until my 34-week appointment when we found out that this baby was also in the posterior position. I read Sit Up and Take Notice, which coaches women in how to change their babies' positioning. I practiced the poses and exercises vigilantly, and at my 36-week appointment we received the good news that the baby had turned to anterior. A week later the baby was still anterior and I had dilated to 3 centimeters. Our obstetrician suggested that we probably had about 10 days left, then laughed and admitted that there was no way to know. He was correct on the latter, as my labor began about six hours after my appointment.

My early labor this time was much less painful than my previous labor, and while my contractions were five minutes apart, they were only about 40 seconds long. I wasn't able to return to sleep, but a warm bath was soothing as I tried to decide if I could really be in labor already.

Around 4 a.m., I woke Mark to ask for a glass of water. His first reaction was "You're kidding" – neither of us had expected labor quite this soon. We reached our obstetrician, who agreed that we were likely in early labor. Had we been a typical delivery, he would have encouraged us to stay home for several hours, but being a VBAC he preferred to have me at the hospital within the next hour or so. Mark got our things ready and timed my contractions. Calls were placed and our neighbor arrived to care for Gavin.

It was again a beautiful morning. We spent the ride to the hospital discussing names, as our list was still quite long. Our doula met us in the triage room. Once I was admitted (4 centimeters, 50 percent effaced and 0 station) our obstetrician had instructed that I was to be in the Jacuzzi for 45 minutes, then monitored. The Jacuzzi had been the most comfortable way to labor with Gavin and I was excited to be able to use it again.

In the walk from the triage room to the Jacuzzi room, however, my labor stopped entirely. So instead of getting into the water, I spent the next several hours walking around the maternity ward, with monitoring once every hour. In the time that I was in triage I had progressed to 5 centimeters dilated and 100 percent effaced. At 2 p.m. our obstetrician conducted a vaginal exam and found no change. I was still not contracting. He voiced his concern that after 7 p.m. there would only be one anesthesiologist in the hospital, where as there were 11 during the day. If I were to experience a rupture, it was critical to have an anesthesiologist immediately on hand. Had I been dilated to at least 7 centimeters, the obstetrician would have wanted to break my water, but because I was only at 5 centimeters he was a little concerned about a cord prolapse and suggested Pitocin instead. We talked with our doula and nurse, and decided that we preferred to have my water broken. Our obstetrician had said that because the baby had been at 0 station all day, the chance of a prolapse was small and agreed to perform the rupture.

After twice confirming that the baby was still anterior, my water was broken. Strong contractions began almost immediately. I now needed Mark at my side, with his hand on me. As long as he was touching me, I could relax around the contractions. I completed my monitoring and got into the shower. The contractions now demanded all of my concentration. I was able to get through each one with audible breathing, counting in my head and keeping my focus on the contraction at hand. Mark and our doula were right with me, encouraging me.

Within an hour, I felt the need to squat down, then get onto my hands and knees, where I quickly experienced the need to push. Had Mark and our doula not been there to help me to the bed, I would have likely delivered right there in the shower.

I got into bed on my left side and our nurse conducted a vaginal exam. She confirmed that I was complete and got our obstetrician. The nurse suggested that the bed be broken down for delivery, but our obstetrician just sat at the bottom corner of the bed to accommodate the diagonal position in which I was lying. I pushed for less than 15 minutes before our daughter was born. The way that my body knew what to do was amazing. I didn't need to be coached, I needed only to follow my body's lead.

Those moments immediately following our daughter's birth will remain with me always. She was placed on my chest before even being dried off. I got to hold her and kiss her, and when it was time, cut her cord. I was in awe – at the fact that she was here already, at the fact that we now had a daughter and a son, at the fact that I had the natural birth that I had so desperately wanted. And Mark had ended the name debate when, as she was held up so we could see that she was a girl, he said "Hi, Isabella."

Though she was born at 37 weeks, 1 day, thus barely full term, she was 7 1/2 pounds and both of her Apgar scores were 9 – a very healthy little girl!

Bella's birth was very healing and empowering for me. While I do wish that Gavin's birth had been different, I think that having experienced a difficult labor made me appreciate Bella's birth all the more.