Are you confused about vaginal birth after cesarean?
Why do so few women have one?
Why do hospitals ban them?
This 30-minute crash course will lay it out for you.
This online course will help you understand the highly political topic of VBAC.
As an internationally recognized consumer advocate and Founder of VBAC Facts®, I help birth professionals, and cesarean parents, achieve clarity on vaginal birth after cesarean through my educational courses, training programs, and consulting services.
I speak at conferences around the world, present Grand Rounds at hospitals, advise advocates seeking legislative change in their state, and serve as a expert witness in legal proceedings.
After over a decade in this work, I have an encyclopedic and intimate appreciation of not only the VBAC evidence, but how politics, racism, paternalism, litigation, and convenience often supersede what birthing people want... all while they are subtlety coerced into repeat cesareans under the guise of safety.
I envision a time when every pregnant person seeking VBAC has access to unbiased information, respectful providers, and community support, so they can plan the birth of their choosing in the setting they desire.
"Jen, I have mad respect for you. I send your site to all moms I know who show an interest in having a VBAC. I like the non-biased information. It's straight forward and simply awesome how you break the information down for women."
- Samantha J. Marshall, Mother
"Thank you so much for your clarity on the VBAC issue and the concerns surrounding it. As a CNM who does many VBACs (in hospital), I appreciate your efforts to spread factual, evidence-based information. I shared your website with the director of our Obstetrics department because I think you do a great job of gathering factual information. He sent it out to everyone in the department! Job well done- keep it up!"
- JoAnn McQueen Yates, CNM, Caldwell, NJ
"And THIS is exactly why I refer people to your site. So appreciate the balanced approach. It's so hard to find on both sides--I see exaggerations of risks bolstered with tragic stories and I see minimizing and downplaying of risks as well. Neither is truly helpful to a mother trying her best to make an evidence-based decision. So again, thank you!"
- Melek Speros, Founder of Black Women Do VBAC, Austin, TX
"I use your presentation of data frequently in teaching health education courses as an example of using study analysis correctly. Sometimes 'interesting' data is referred to as such as a means of getting related data discussed, not because it is particularly noteworthy as evidence. You do an exceptional job presenting research objectively and in context."
- Angie Bowen Bond, Clinical Researcher (PhD), Chandler, AZ
Mothers who are interested in attending do not have to be on the “VBAC track" as the class is not pro-VBAC or only for those already planning a VBAC.
As the class does not advocate for a specific mode of delivery and operates from a place of respect, women who are planning or leaning towards a repeat cesarean should not feel like that choice will be belittled, judged, or that the workshop's objective is to convince them to make a different decision. This is their choice to make with their body and VBAC Facts agrees with ACOG's assertion that two women can look at the same data and make different decisions. There is not a “right" or “wrong" decision, only what is right or wrong for a specific woman.
More on the class's tone.