Please give a warm welcome to our newest blogger, Franki Arnold!

by Franki Arnold

My name is Franki Arnold, and I am a 26-year-old blogger and owner/operator of my blog Those Young Moms, and the mother of a bright and very busy four-and-a-half year old. I’m married to my wonderful husband David, and we are currently expecting our second child in July.

I am so excited to be able to share this journey with all of you on amotherworld!

David and I planned, discussed and hashed out the pros and cons of having a second child for over two years, and we are so happy to finally be expanding our family.

My first pregnancy, which resulted in our beautiful daughter Tatum being born in 2008, was a surprise. While we had not planned on getting pregnant, we welcomed the change into our lives and were thrilled to be expecting our first baby. With this being my first pregnancy and not having much experience with pregnancy and babies, I dove head first into a completely unfamiliar world of bodily changes, prenatal and breastfeeding classes, taking in advice from many different people (often strangers, as most of us mothers have experienced!), and birth. I was immediately overwhelmed at the amount of information and advice.

My pregnancy went very smoothly. I had no complications, and by the time my due date of June 15 came and went, I was very ready to meet my baby. In the early hours of June 19, I started feeling what I thought might be contractions, but I wasn’t sure since they were not consistent and not unbearable. I tried to rest, but seeing as this was our first and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, I didn’t do much resting!

An hour later I started feeling more pain and the contractions were closer together. I woke David up and told him I thought it was time to go to the hospital, we grabbed the hospital bag, and we were off to have a baby!

To make a long story short, my labour fizzled out about ten hours after I began, and I was given a c-section as my labour was deemed a “failure to progress.” At the time, I hadn’t done a lot of research regarding how a woman’s body goes through labour and how it can be very intermittent.

I had done the basics (I read What To Expect, isn’t that pregnancy & birth 101?!) and trusted the doctors would deal with my labour appropriately. My c-section was not traumatic, and both Tatum and I faired very well, but I was left with an awful feeling of my body having failed me, and that there was maybe something more I could have done to avoid the surgery.

Four-and-a-half years later, and expecting baby #2, I am planning a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean). About a month after having Tatum, I started researching different information regarding c-sections and VBACS and was thrown into a whole other realm of pregnancy, labor and birth that I was not aware of while pregnant with Tatum. I so wished I had had this information before! After over four years of excessive reading and research, I have become a very passionate advocate for VBAC births and I am very confident about having one with this baby.

Looking back, there are several factors that I feel interfered with my body’s natural progression of labour and resulting in my c-section. I know so much more about how a woman’s body is meant to work during labour and delivery, and my wish with this pregnancy, labour and delivery is that I can experience the birth that I have envisioned and that I know my body knows how to do.

There is always a place for c-sections when medically necessary, but they are so widely performed now and can be avoided as long as we have the right knowledge. I hope that with this knowledge I can achieve the birth I have longed for.

I can’t wait to share my pregnancy journey, and hope to connect with other mothers during this time!

Franki Arnold, owner/operator and blogger of Those Young Moms is a 26-year-old mother to 4 1/2 year old Tatum and expecting baby number two in July 2013. Franki is passionate about natural and empowering birth for women, organic and healthy eating for families, easy chic fashion for moms and big cups of coffee. She hopes to inspire women through blogging about her journey towards a VBAC with her second pregnancy. Find her also on Facebook and Twitter.