VBAC BIRTH PREPARATION WORKSHOP
A full day built entirely around planning a vaginal birth after caesarean.
This day covers what VBAC labour actually looks like, how to understand the evidence and hold it steadily when conversations with your care team get complicated, and what your support person needs to know to be genuinely useful on the day.
One day. A lot of ground. All of it pointed forward.
New dates open as interest grows. If you'd like to be notified when the next date is released, get in touch.
UPCOMING DATES
28 June · 26 July · 30 August · 25 October · 29 November
Sundays · 10am -6pm · $500 per couple
The Gathering Space · 160 Flinders St, Paddington
Small Group - Max 4 families.
WHO THIS IS FOR
For women who have had a caesarean birth and are planning to birth vaginally this time, and who want preparation that actually speaks to that.
✓ Women planning a VBAC in a hospital setting
✓ Partners and primary birth support people
✓ Those who've done general birth education and want VBAC-specific preparation
✓ Women who want clear, honest information about the evidence before making decisions
This day assumes VBAC as the intended pathway. It is not designed for women still weighing up VBAC against a repeat caesarean that is a different conversation, and one worth having with your care provider first
Why VBAC needs its own preparation
VBAC labour is not the same as a first labour. It also sits in a different place to a second labour. It carries its own physiology, its own particular demands, and often its own emotional weight from the birth that came before.
General birth education rarely covers any of that. It is usually built around a first labour in a hospital, with VBAC mentioned briefly if at all. This day is built around VBAC specifically. The physiology, the evidence, the dynamics of planning and labouring within a hospital system, and what it takes to stay grounded when the pressure to choose differently does not always stop.
WHAT THE DAY COVERS
-
What VBAC labour actually looks like
VBAC labour is not the same as a first labour and it is not the same as a repeat caesarean. It has its own physiology, its own pattern, and its own particular demands.
This session covers how VBAC labour commonly progresses, what is different from other labours, what your care team is monitoring and why, and what normal progress looks and feels like, including the parts that can feel unfamiliar or slow.
-
The evidence and how to hold it
There is a lot of information about VBAC. Some of it is useful. Some of it is frightening, selective, or presented without enough context to be helpful.
This session works through the evidence clearly and honestly. The statistics, what they mean, what they don't mean, and how to hold them steadily when conversations with your care team get complicated. The goal is not to tell you what to decide. It is to help you decide what is right for you from a grounded place.
-
Navigating your care and staying in your own authority
Planning a VBAC within a hospital involves specific dynamics. Monitoring requirements, consent processes, and the particular pressures that can build as labour progresses.
This session prepares you for those realities. What to expect, what your rights are, how to work with your care team, and how to stay clear in your own decision-making when it matters most.
-
The role of your support person
VBAC labour asks something specific of partners and support people. Not just presence, but a particular kind of steadiness. Someone who understands what this labour involves, who can hold the space without adding pressure, and who knows what to do when things feel uncertain or intense.
This session looks honestly at what that means. What is useful in VBAC labour and what isn't. How to read the room. What to do when you don't know what to do. Partners and support people leave this day with a clearer sense of their role and more confidence in how to hold it
WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
✓ A realistic understanding of what VBAC labour looks and feels like
✓ Clarity about the evidence and how to hold it when conversations get complicated
✓ Practical preparation for navigating hospital systems and consent
✓ A stronger sense of what support looks like in a VBAC labour
✓ More grounded expectations of birth and the early postpartum period
✓ A clearer sense of your own authority in the decisions ahead
You leave feeling steadier and better oriented, more able to meet this birth as it unfolds rather than bracing for what might happen.
FACILITATED BY JENNIFER HAZI
Jennifer is a Registered & Endorsed Midwife in private practice, with over 17 years of experience supporting women in pregnancy, homebirth, hospital birth, and the postnatal period.
She has supported many women across Sydney through VBAC preparation and birth, and brings both clinical knowledge and genuine respect for each woman's right to make informed decisions about her own birth.
This day is educational, not clinical. It is designed to sit alongside your individual midwifery care, not in place of it.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
-
FORMAT
Full-day, in-person. 10:00am – 6:00pm
Small group · Max 4 couples. Discussion, explanation, and reflection throughout
-
WHO ATTENDS
Pregnant woman + primary support person (partner, friend, or chosen support person)
Both attend together for the full day
-
INVESTMENT
$500 per couple
Limited to 4 couples per date
WANT TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PREVIOUS BIRTH FIRST?
Some women find it useful to go through their previous caesarean before preparing for this birth. What happened, why it unfolded the way it did, and what it means for your options going forward.
The Birth Review and Debrief is a 90-minute clinical appointment for exactly that. It is a separate session to this workshop and can be booked before or alongside your preparation.
HOW THIS FITS ALONGSIDE YOUR CARE
This day is educational, not clinical. It does not replace your midwifery care and is not a substitute for individual clinical guidance.
It is designed to sit alongside your care relationship, to help you ask better questions, hold more realistic expectations, and arrive at birth with a clearer shared understanding of what you have chosen.
Many women find it most useful at around 28–34 weeks, when birth is coming into focus and the questions are getting specific.
READY TO PREPARE FOR YOUR VBAC?
Upcoming Dates:
28 June · 26 July · 30 August · 25 October · 29 November
Sundays · 10am -6pm · $500 per couple
The Gathering Space · 160 Flinders St, Paddington
Small Group - Max 4 families.
New dates open as interest grows.
If you'd like to be notified when the next date is released, get in touch