Going to a birth reflections service can be useful in terms of understanding why particular decisions were made or unplanned interventions occurred. Most NHS Trusts offer a birth reflections service where you meet with a midwife or maternity support worker to go through your notes and explain the events. They should offer you the chance to talk about your experience and will have spoken to others with similar experiences before. So don’t be afraid to talk to them. If you feel ready, you might like to consider who you feel comfortable opening up to – it could be your partner, a friend or a relative.Īlternatively, you might feel you would like to talk through what happened with someone who works in pregnancy and birth but is not directly related to the situation. Getting help and support TalkingĪlthough talking about what happened can feel like the most difficult thing in the world, it could help you to process the events. Read more about support for partners when it comes to a difficult birth here. Partners who witness stressful events and numerous medical procedures during the birth sometimes feel out of control and fearful of what is happening as they can’t help (PTSD 2018a). Although there’s not much research into this area, it’s thought that as many as 5% of partners develop trauma symptoms after witnessing a birth. Impact on birth partnersīirth partners may also feel traumatised after witnessing a distressing event, sometimes even if the woman who gave birth is feeling well. It is important that PTSD is recognised as such and not treated as PND, although the two can go hand in hand. It’s worth remembering that while the symptoms of PTSD and postnatal depression (PND) might be similar, the two illnesses are different. Not feeling connected to your baby and/or Getting involved in destructive behaviours, such as excessive drinking, using drugs or forming a new relationship, Keeping very busy to avoid intrusive thoughts,įeeling angry, upset, aggressive, irritable or detached, You may have difficulty remembering parts of your birth experience.īecause of the stress of living with PTSD, you or others may notice that you are:įeeling anxious and fearful a lot of the time, You may feel guilty and blame yourself for your traumatic birth. You worry that something terrible is going to happen to your baby.įeeling low and unhappy (“negative cognition” in the medical jargon). This can mean refusing to walk past the hospital where you gave birth or avoiding meeting other women with new babies.įeeling hypervigilant: this means that you are constantly alert, irritable and jumpy.
These make you feel distressed and panicky.Īvoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma. Re-experiencing the traumatic event through flashbacks, nightmares or intrusive memories. Symptoms to look out forĪccording to the Birth Trauma Association, there are four main symptoms of postnatal PTSD. It’s also important to remember that PTSD can develop weeks, months or even years after the birth. You’re more likely to get PTSD if you suffered from anxiety or depression in pregnancy or suffered previous traumatic experiences. Around 4-6 per cent of women will develop PTSD after birth (Dekel et al 2017). If you notice these symptoms continuing for longer than around four weeks after the birth, then you could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It might also affect relationships with partners. Many parents find it difficult to bond with their baby to start with as the baby is a constant reminder of the trauma they have experienced. It can take some time to come to terms with what has happened too. Traumatic birth affects people in different ways. You’re not alone if you’re finding it difficult to put into words the impact that your traumatic birth has had on you (Elmir et al, 2010). Often people assume that if you and the baby are healthy, you will be happy. Whatever your experience, it is important that you are listened to and that you can express how events made you feel (Reed et al, 2017). It might be that your birth was long and intense, that you had an unplanned intervention, that you weren’t looked after or listened to in labour, or perhaps there were concerns about the safety of you or your baby (Shaban et al, 2013). Every person’s experience is different, but trauma can be triggered by both physical and emotional experiences. Feeling upset or distressed by what happened when you were giving birth may mean you’re experiencing birth trauma.
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