The VBAC Link

We are honored to have THE Jen Hamilton join us on the pod today! Jen Hamilton is a labor and delivery nurse, viral TikTok creator with over 6 million followers, and author of Birth Vibes: Stories and Strategies for an Empowered Birth (May 2026), a warm, clinically grounded guide to navigating childbirth with confidence and calm. She is the founder of Hot Mess Express, a nonprofit offering judgment-free house cleaning and organizing for women in need, and a passionate advocate for dismantling systemic racism and misogyny in obstetrical and gynecological care. 
A 2026 President's Award recipient from the American Nurses Association and a frequent presence in outlets including CNN, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post, Jen has become one of the most recognizable voices in modern nursing through her signature blend of clinical expertise, frank humor, and deep empathy. She is funny, kind, generous, gracious, and quickly becoming a household name!

In today’s episode, Jen sits down with Lily and Paige to chat all about creating the best vibes for your birth. They do a deep dive into VBAC, and ask questions that came directly from you all. This is an episode you DO NOT want to miss.

Today’s topics include: 
Using interventions as tools
Why a provider may be the factor if someone will have a VBAC or not
Dirty secret of OB
How Jen feels about doulas
How to ask for a new nurse
Debriefing your birth 
Preparing for a different birth experience
Expectations around coping techniques
Giving yourself grace
Baton race of coping analogy
Funny and memorable stories in L&D
Unique VBAC circumstances
Failure to progress
How she would improve cesareans and humanize the experience

Keywords: Jen Hamilton, labor and delivery, L&D nurse, OBGYN, cesarean, vbac, birth after cesarean, cbac, doula, birth vibes, epidural, failure to progress, tolac, vbac consent, hospital vbac
Birth Vibes: Stories and Strategies for an Empowered Birth
Jen's Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, Website
Needed Website: Code TVL for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Tatiana is back with her second VBA2C story!! She first joined us on Episode 107 in 2020 where she dove into all the details around her first two C-sections and her first VBA2C. It was a planned HBAC turned hospital delivery with a supportive OB, but her heart still craved the home birth experience. In this episode, she returns with a full-circle update on the birth of her fourth sweet boy. 
Her fourth birth was the HBA2C she was hoping for, aka a hotel birth after two cesareans with a midwife she deeply trusted. If you’re scratching your head wondering about these logistics, don’t worry! Tatiana shares it ALL. 
We dive into a critical conversation around access. Many providers and hospitals still restrict VBA2C, and it is especially difficult to find support for an out-of-hospital VBA2C. Tatiana shares why expanding midwifery care matters, how pelvic floor therapy during pregnancy can support better outcomes, and why finding a provider you trust (no matter the distance) can make all the difference.
Keywords: VBAC, VBA2C, HBA2C, hotel birth, out-of-hospital birth, cesarean, prior vaginal birth, VBAC after two cesareans, birth access, midwifery care, pelvic floor therapy, provider support, informed consent

Episode 107 Tatiana’s VBA2C 
NYT Article on Continuous Fetal Monitoring
The VBAC Link Blog: The 5 Most Common Reasons for C-section
The VBAC Link Blog: How to Navigate VBAC Hospital Policies
Needed Website: Code VBAC for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We are closing out our Cesarean Awareness Month series on the most common reasons for C-sections with a deep dive into all things fetal monitoring! CNM Paige Boran, who attended Lily’s VBAC and who we deeply love and trust, answers every question you can imagine. This is definitely an episode you will want to save and listen back to often!

Midwife Paige talks about:
The history of continuous fetal monitoring
The differences between continuous, internal, and internal monitoring
Bradycardia and tachycardia readings
CFM and VBAC
When she recommends having CFM
How to advocate informed consent and declination
Early, variable, and late decelerations
Head compression and cord compression
When fetal heart tracings become concerning & what empowered conversations look like
Ways to help resolve decels
Placental insufficiency
All signs of uterine rupture
How to make the decision of going for a C-section or continuing to labor 
Evidence on continuous fetal monitoring

And more!! We are so grateful for providers like Midwife Paige who we have seen in action and are willing to take the time to help educate our community. For those who question if they made the right call to have a cesarean or continue to labor due to fetal heart readings, we send you love. It is so tough!

Fetal heart tones are so nuanced. We hope that with this episode, you feel empowered with more knowledge to find a team that gives you the support and individualized care you deserve. 

Evidence Based Birth®: Evidence on Continuous Fetal Monitoring
NYT Article on Continuous Fetal Monitoring
The VBAC Link Blog: The 5 Most Common Reasons for C-section
The VBAC Link Blog: How to Navigate VBAC Hospital Policies
Needed Website: Code TVL for 20% Off

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We’re so excited to bring you another episode in our Cesarean Awareness Month series! This one was highly requested in our VBAC Link Facebook Community and we can’t wait for you to hear Catherine’s stories. Today’s topic is all about BREECH, one of the most common reasons for cesareans.
Catherine, a mom of four with a bicornuate uterus, shares her four births: a scheduled breech cesarean, a precipitous head-down HBAC, a breech CBAC, and a planned breech HBA2C that ended in a hospital transfer for a CBA2C but with a surprise breech VBA2C on the OR table!
Catherine opens up about how communication can shape a birth experience just as much as the outcome, and how even intended healing experiences can have traumatic pieces to them. She shares her passion for informed breech birth, patient advocacy, consent, midwifery care, and navigating both in-hospital and out-of-hospitalbirth settings, along with the importance of emotional processing and support.
Her message is a strong reminder not to settle, Women of Strength! When you understand your options, trust your body, and advocate for the care you deserve, you can move through birth feeling informed and empowered, even when things don’t go as planned.

Breech Without Borders
The VBAC Link Blog: The 5 Most Common Reasons for C-section
The VBAC Link Blog: ECV and VBAC
Needed Website: Code VBAC for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

As we continue our Cesarean Awareness Month series, CBAC and RCS moms, this one's for you. If your future birth looks like a subsequent cesarean, we want to make that cesarean the best, most peaceful, and empowering experience it can be. Better birth after cesarean means better options, and today's episode takes a deep dive into the option of Maternal Assisted Cesareans (MAC). 

We are joined today by Dr. Koen Deurloo from the Netherlands. Dr. Koen is a Dutch OB/GYN specializing in perinatology and family-centered cesarean birth. Since 2017, his team has performed more than 300 Maternal Assisted Cesareans, developing one of the most experience-based approaches to this technique. He is also the author of Door de ogen van een gynaecoloog and teaches widely on respectful, trauma-informed birth care. His work focuses on creating transparency and calm so parents feel genuinely involved and supported throughout the entire process, especially in the operating room. 

In this episode, Dr. Koen walks us through how he was first introduced to the MAC (spoiler: it was a mom and her doula!), how the procedure has evolved over time, what his patients have to say about it (another spoiler: 100% recommend it), and how to advocate for this kind of experience with your provider.

Birth after cesarean deserves dignity. It deserves options, and it deserves finding a provider who holds your stories with care and who speaks about birth the way Dr. Koen does.
We PROMISE this is an episode you will not want to miss!!!

Women of strength, we know how difficult it can be to choose between going for a VBAC, pivoting to a CBAC, or scheduling a repeat cesarean. Whether for medical or personal reasons, your choice is valid and good. There are so many brave ways to birth. As always, our team here at The VBAC Link is here to give you options, stories, resources, love, and support!

Through the Eyes of a Gynecologist by Dr. Koen Deurloo
MACAZINE
Paige’s Maternal Assisted Cesarean Story
Needed Website: Code VBAC for 20% Off
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands