Birth Trauma Resolution

Birth trauma can be isolating, devastating and very real - but you can move past it! Find out more here about how I can support you!

Birth trauma describes the psychological and emotional distress that some people experience as a result of giving birth.

The trauma itself may stem from physically what occurred, but also emotionally how you felt within your birth experience and in the immediate hours and days after birth.  For some, the trauma can even start from unexpectedly difficult or upsetting fertility journeys that then get heightened by a more difficult or unsettling birth.

It is estimated that up to 10% of women experience some form of birth trauma, but there is limited research into this, and the true number will likely be much larger as many cases go unreported.

Causes of birth trauma:

 A trauma response is unique to everyone that goes through it and can be triggered by physical pain, a feeling of being out of control, interventions, feeling helpless, dealing with unexpected complications, feelings of failure, loss of autonomy, not being listened to and side-lined by care teams, how you are treated and your perceptions of events that unfolded. 

The long-lasting impacts on your mental, emotional and physical health can be devastating if left untreated, and even on the health of your birth partner.  So please don’t hope for it to pass alone as the ripple effect it can have on all areas of your life can be significant.

People who suffer with birth trauma can experience PTSD, anxiety, detachment, and mood disorders among other things that will cloud your enjoyment and self-belief in your postnatal period and beyond.

Your local maternity trust will provide, if requested, birth after thoughts sessions to go through your birth notes with you and help you to make sense of what happened or the decisions that were made.  This process sometimes can bring up more questions than answers and is not always a healing process to go through. And you may feel distrusting of accessing support from a care team that you feel failed you, or mistreated you.

Symptoms of Birth Trauma:

The symptoms of Birth trauma you may be experiencing can include:

·         Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks

·         Difficulty bonding with baby

·         Depression or anxiety

·         Difficulty sleeping or nightmares

·         Struggles resuming intimacy with your partners postnatally

·         Issues with trust in your interpersonal relationships

·         Difficulty with breastfeeding, linked to your hormone levels and stress response

·         Feelings of guilt, shame and failure

Treatment and Support for Birth Trauma:

Treatment for symptoms of birth trauma can include CBT, EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) and in some cases medications, which can be useful tools for some to help them manage their symptoms.

My Mother Nurture Method emotional health programme will help you deal with and process your emotional response to your birth experience which tackles the feelings and anxiety from the core root causes, because birth trauma isn’t necessarily always about what happened but how you feel about what happened. Dealing with your birth experience from an emotional perspective means that you are able to unpick, understand and overcome your trauma, rather than just learn to cope with it.

In my sessions you do not need to go through specifically what happened in your experience, to prevent any re-triggering, but changing how you feel about it from this point onwards, because we cannot change the past but you are in control of how you feel right now and in the future.

I also often find that birth trauma isn’t always just about birth and the women that I see will have also dealt with other types of anxiety, depression and trauma in other areas of their lives that have also been heightened or tr-triggered by pregnancy, birth and motherhood.  So within my programme we will look at everything that you have felt or dealt with in your life that may be feeding into how you’re feeling right now and tackle it all, but in easy going, insightful and empowering sessions.

To find out more, book in for your FREE birth trauma consultation call here:

Support available in North Herts (Stevenage, Letchworth, Hitchin, Baldock, Knebworth, Royston) and online nationwide across England.