Yep I second what Kelly has said. I have not found the Mercy to be very supportive of VBAC or V anything really. More likely they'll say all the things you want to hear until you're on the bed aattached to monitors and then they'll find a 'reason' for your RCS and that will be that.
Although like Kelly, I'm a doula, I agree with her that hiring your own Private Midwife is your best bet if you are serious about a VBAC. That way you can access the
Midwifery Model of care, instead of playing roulette with the same model of care (obstetric model) that got you a
c/s in the first place.
With an IM you have two options open to you: stay at home and do much of the labour at home with your IM's support, she can check the baby's heartbeat so you know bubs is fine, then transfer to hospy when you are in strong labour, towards the end of dilation. Your IM will go with you into the hospy and advocate for you.
Second alternative - if, as labour is going well, you felt that you don't want the disruption of the transfer to hospy, and you feel confident to, you can stay home and birth your baby with your IM. If you chose this she would likely call in a second midwife to attend.
I know a couple of student doulas who would love the chance to support a woman through birth. But if it were me, I would be hiring an IM and planning a homebirth. You have double the rate of VBAC success with that plan.
Betcha, if hiring an IM or trained doula is too exxy, you are going to have to be one smart sassy mumma and consumer. You could try the strategy of staying home for as long as possible, really doing the hard yards of labour at home with your student doula's support, then moving to the hospital with your doula accompanying you. But there are so many pitfalls even before labour begins when you are trying to birth normally in the medicalised system. You will need to do really good research and preparation, and have a clear plan so you know what you'll do if:
- you are still pregnant at 42 weeks
- your waters break and contractions don't start immediately, or within 18 hours
- if there is slight meconium in the waters (normal for a term baby)
- your baby is posterior, or the head is 'high'
- you naughty uterus dares to dilate slower than 1 cm per hour
and so on. There are just so many obstacles to birthing normally in the hospital system. You might actually be better off at Warragul Hospital or even the Royal Womens that the Mercy. I wish I could be more encouraging, but the usual routines and procedures of the medical model hinder normal birth, then they need to go in and 'make' it happen. IME homebirth is the only way to avoid this in Australia. In other countries you can have midwife-led care or independent birth centre, but in Australia the only way to avoid the medical model and access the midwifery model, is homebirth.
I think
Midwives Naturally have something like a 90% VBAC success rate. Here are their
recommendations for a successful VBAC 
VBAC at the Mercy Hospital for Women (Heidelberg) 
8 weeks, Oct 2002
sorry! i only just came outta the general labour and birth section so must of gotten confused LOL! 
you are in the right place LOL! 
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