How to Cope With Birth Trauma
Many people live long term with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after having babies which is why Emma Svanberg, a Clinical Psychologist and Hypnobirthing teacher, is committed to raising awareness and support for Birth Trauma. Here she offers a starting point of how to cope with birth trauma:
It doesn’t matter what kind of birth you had. Natural, with intervention, emergency C section, planned C section… No matter how straightforward it looks from the outside, you can still feel traumatised by it (equally people can go through even the most complicated births and come out the other side not feeling troubled).
What links traumatic births is that, at some point during the process, you felt severely threatened and unsafe or you felt that your baby was unsafe – and you experienced the helplessness, fear and horror that goes along with that.
• Research into the amount of women suffering from symptoms of PTSD after birth have ranged from 1% to 17%. However, women are frequently misdiagnosed with postnatal depression – and we know that many women won’t seek help at all, so it’s hard to know how many women actually feel that their birth has traumatised them.
I collected over 70 birth stories during Birth Trauma Awareness week and analysed them to see what the common themes were.Five themes emerged – ‘A Force Bigger Than Me’ (the physical impact of birth), ‘Heroes and Villains’ (the influence of birth professionals), ‘Delivery into Parenthood’ (the wider ranging impact on mental health and relationships), ‘I Had No Idea’ (the culture of secrecy around birth and birth trauma) and ‘Make Birth Better’ (ideas to improve birth).You can read about these findings in more depth at www.makebirthbetter.org
1) THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRTH PROFESSIONALS.One of the most striking themes was how important professionals are – before birth in providing honest and thorough antenatal care, during birth in offering respectful and compassionate care (including proper informed consent) and after birth in offering a listening ear and, where necessary, information about where to seek therapeutic help.
When this doesn’t happen, women can suffer alone for years – recovering from something that is sold to them as ‘the best day of their lives’.
2) UNHELPFUL THOUGHTS. If you’re reading this and wondering if you’re still recovering from a traumatic birth, the first thing is to stop the voices which tell you ‘don’t be silly’ or ‘you should be happy’.You don’t need to feel happy, and you’re not being silly. During birth you’re at your most vulnerable, and if you felt in any way unsafe during that time, it’s not surprising that there is an emotional fall out.
3) SEEK HELP> There is help available if you would like support in recovering from your experience. You can speak to your midwife or health visitor, visit your GP or, in some areas, make a self-referral to your local talking therapies service.
Some people don’t have a good experience in seeking help. They may be misdiagnosed, or have to face a long waiting list, or have to go back to the hospital they were traumatised in to get that help. Some help that is offered can, in fact, be re-traumatising. You might need to look around, and you might need to stand your ground, but there ARE people out there who really want to help you recover.
Do look into the background of anyone offering you support. Make sure they are properly accredited and qualified to work with traumatic symptoms. And, if you don’t feel you have a good fit, don’t be afraid to keep looking.