Birth Trauma Isn’t Always Caused by a Medical Emergency
For many women, the most traumatic aspects of childbirth are caused by something other than a medical emergency. The way that women are treated or spoken to during labor and delivery can cause extreme distress, sometimes resulting in trauma or PTSD.
Birth trauma includes events during childbirth where the birthing person perceives that they’re being “stripped of their dignity”.
Cheryl Tatano Beck's research on trauma/PTSD caused by childbirth helped define and understand childbirth trauma as "an event occurring during the labor and delivery process that involves actual or threatened serious injury or death to the mother or her infant", and experiences of intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and horror. Based on her research, she later expanded that definition to include events during labor and delivery where the birthing person feels/perceives that they've been stripped of their dignity.
Causes of birth trauma can include:
Lack of communication
Not feeling supported or reassured
Feeling pressured into making critical, complex decisions quickly during labor or immediately following the birth
Unexpected changes to how you were planning your birth
Having decisions taken out of your hands
Routine measures or medically necessary interventions (measures that are routine to a medical professional may feel overwhelming to a birthing person)
Feeling that you're out of control and helpless to help yourself or your baby----even when you and your baby are now “fine”.
Past traumas—including attachment wounds that can easily be retriggered by lack of support, reassurance, and respect
After a difficult childbirth, it’s common to hear moms say:
“No one explained what was happening to me”
“No one told me what was happening to my baby”
“I felt like things were being ‘done to’ me, like I was an object, a ‘thing’”
“I felt like I was being violated-it felt like sexual assault”
“People were having conversations as if I wasn’t there”
“I felt like my concerns/fears/requests were dismissed, not taken seriously”
Your trauma history can have a big impact on how you experienced your childbirth
It’s not uncommon for past traumas to resurface after childbirth. Traumas caused by emotional neglect, physical or sexual abuse, past medical traumas,or early attachment traumas can be triggered during or after childbirth. When past trauma is stirred up by things that occur during your labor, delivery, or postpartum it’s important to remember that it’s not your fault, and you didn’t cause it. A trauma response is a neurobiological function, which means that it happens automatically. It’s your nervous system working hard to keep you safe. Very importantly, if you feel your childbirth was traumatic, then it was.
Getting Therapy support to heal birth trauma
If childbirth was difficult for you, it's important not to dismiss or minimize this part of your experience, especially when your distress or fears continue longer than the first month after your baby is born. Postpartum depression, anxiety and PTSD are highly treatable.
For help in finding a therapist who specializes in treating perinatal/birth trauma, check out these resources:
Therapist Network | Touchstone Institute
Provider Directory | Postpartum Support International (PSI)
Source: Traumatic Childbirth by Cheryl Tatano Beck, Jeanne Watson Driscoll, and Sue Watson
