Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Support
Overcome your PTSD, not by changing what happened, but changing the way you emotionally respond to what happened. Find out more about it’s causes and how to overcome it here:
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can occur after childbirth for some because of a traumatic event during birth or in the early weeks of motherhood. These events can include a difficult delivery, emergency situations, unexpected complications, premature birth, health scares or baby loss. However, it is worth noting, that many women who experience these traumatic events don’t always go on to have PTSD. Some may experience other trauma-based responses like birth trauma, postnatal anxiety, post-natal depression or birth related stress disorder, and others will not experience any kind of trauma at all. It all comes down to how you feel in the moment, how your process these life events and the support you get afterwards.
Each person is unique and so your response to what you experienced will likely be very different to someone else’s. There is no right or wrong way to respond.
But the good news is, whether you feel you have PTSD, birth trauma or depression as a result, there is help and you can overcome how you are feeling. Unfortunately we cannot go back and change what physically happened but we can alter your emotional response to what happened so that your PTSD doesn’t cloud your life from this point onwards.
The symptoms of PTSD:
Up to 30% of women are estimated to experience elements of PTSD after birth, although not all will have the full blown condition. 3
Symptoms of PTSD include vivid flashbacks of your birth, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, depression and avoidance behaviours to keep you safe from re-triggering your difficult experience, such as not returning to the same hospital or midwife, not meeting up with mum friends who may talk about birth, not wanting to look at pregnancy, birth or newborn photos and many others.
Treatment and Support for PTSD:
Many women will put off asking for support after a traumatic experience, no matter how debilitating their symptoms may be for a few reasons. The main two being; they are reluctant to seek support from a maternity care system that they feel failed them in the first place and secondly, their trauma can feel like a sign that they personally failed in some way or are not good enough.
I want you to know that what happened to you and how you feel as a result is not your fault and it is not a reflection of your worth or ability in any way.
To help you overcome your PTSD, or any other trauma, it is important to find a health care provider that will support your individual experiences and expectations so that you can successfully move beyond your trauma and be able to process and let go of your emotions, thoughts and feelings in a supported and guided way, and in a way that feels safe and secure for you.
The Mother Nurture Method programme, will do just that. It will help you overcome how you are feeling, alter your emotional responses to your experience and build your confidence and worth to get you to a place where you can flourish and thrive as a mother, and as an individual. Book your free PTSD consultation here:
Support available in North Herts (Stevenage, Letchworth, Hitchin, Baldock, Knebworth, Royston) and online nationwide across England.