It’s been a couple days since I had a second opinion on having a VBAC with twins at GBMC in Baltimore so the tears have slowly started to dry up.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I first saw my first OB/GYN at GBMC (Dr Ginny Merryman), she laughed at me when I told her I wanted to try for a VBAC with this set of twins.  I decided to seek out a second opinion and my neighbor recommended her OB practice to me.  So I setup some time to meet with the new doctor and got a similar response. Dr. Claire Weitz didn’t laugh at me but she told me straight up that she did not do VBACs with twin pregnancies and that if I wanted a VBAC I needed to find another hospital.  She then instructed me to go to the NIH website and read up on their study on VBACs.  I was devastated.  All I wanted was for a doctor to encourage me and say they’d try.  I know there are a million scenarios that could lead to me needing a cesarian and when the time came I’m all about reasonably weighing the pros and cons of each. But this early on I see no reason why someone would flat out deny me the option.

So I took Dr. Weitz’s advice and went to the NIH website.  I found the study she was referring to (from 2010, 5 years out of date) and found NOTHING in that said a twin VBAC was not recommended or that it had an increased risk of any serious conditions.  In fact, I went a step further and reached out to the I-CAN site and got an awesome response from the Maryland chapter with some advice on where to go from here and which doctors might be able to help me.

Specifically she wrote:

“The American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) states that “women with one previous cesarean delivery with a low transverse incision, who are otherwise appropriate candidates for twin vaginal delivery, may be considered candidates for TOLAC [trial of labor after cesarean].”  http://www.acog.org/ Resources-And-Publications/ Practice-Bulletins/Committee- on-Practice-Bulletins- Obstetrics/Vaginal-Birth- After-Previous-Cesarean- Delivery.  There are lots of other scientific studies that also show a twin VBAC is a safe and reasonable option (see links to abstracts below).

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I reached out to a midwife she suggested who also told me no and left a message with another potential lead at Mercy hospital.  So despite feeling very defeated this week there is still some hope depending on how Mercy responds.

I also got a phone call from another ICAN representative who said I can always go into the hospital when I’m in labor and refuse a cesarian.  The hospital will have to treat me if I’m in active labor.  Problem is I doubt a hospital is going to schedule a cesarian for 40 weeks with twins… it will likely be long before I would go into labor on my own.  Plus it’s scary to think how I’d be treated if I was the hostile patient who refused to listen to the doctors.  I don’t want to put my babies or my life in jeopardy.

This whole situation is so frustrating.  I do NOT want another cesarian.  I had a miserable experience and I don’t want to go through that again.  …but it looks like I will have no choice.