Birth Trauma Therapy

Despite the pro­found human joy that child­birth brings, there are still some bad emo­tions asso­ci­at­ed with the expe­ri­ence of birth.

Some­times, it can feel like soci­ety expects us to move on from the expe­ri­ence of birth too quick­ly.

Con­se­quent­ly, we may place unrea­son­able expec­ta­tions on our­selves, feel­ing that the expe­ri­ence is so ful­fill­ing that it would be wrong to feel any­thing neg­a­tive. 

But, two things can co-exist. There’s the joy of child­birth, and there’s the trau­ma from child­birth.

Only when we deal with the trau­ma for those affect­ed can the feel­ings of joy be prop­er­ly processed and enjoyed.

 

What is birth trauma?

The UK’s Birth Trau­ma Asso­ci­a­tion defines birth trau­ma as ‘symp­toms of dis­tress you might expe­ri­ence after hav­ing gone through or wit­nessed a trau­mat­ic birth.

Although there is no per­fect way to describe birth trau­ma, that def­i­n­i­tion does a pret­ty good job of call­ing out the basic ele­ments.

So let’s go through those basic ele­ments and then some. It’ll help you tru­ly under­stand what birth trau­ma means:

• ‘Dis­tress’ cov­ers both emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal dam­age. Phys­i­cal dam­age may include nerve or mus­cle dam­age.
• Emo­tion­al dis­tress may include anx­i­ety and dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing. If the expe­ri­ence is too tough to deal with, peo­ple can expe­ri­ence post­par­tum PTSD.
• Moth­ers are more like­ly to deal with birth trau­ma, but their part­ners can expe­ri­ence it, too. Being a wit­ness to a trau­mat­ic birth can trig­ger post­na­tal PTSD.
• Around 17% of par­ents in the Unit­ed States are affect­ed by post­par­tum PTSD, accord­ing to research endorsed by the Amer­i­can Psy­chi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion.

 

Symptoms of postnatal PTSD

Birth trau­ma can sti­fle the tran­si­tion into par­ent­hood, espe­cial­ly if you’re a first-time par­ent. That makes it essen­tial to acknowl­edge its pres­ence ear­ly and deal with it coura­geous­ly. 

To do that, you need to be aware of the symp­toms of birth trau­ma. When you feel, see, or expe­ri­ence any or all of these things, you’re like­ly deal­ing with child­birth trau­ma:

• Vivid flash­backs of the trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence
• Night­mares
• Intru­sive thoughts
• Pow­er­ful dis­tress when you see a reminder of the trau­ma
• Hyper­vig­i­lance
• Aggres­sive behav­ior
• Loss of abil­i­ty to express emo­tions or feel
• Dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing

Birth trau­ma can put you on edge, caus­ing you to avoid lov­ing inter­ac­tion (or any inter­ac­tion) with peo­ple or places that remind you of the trau­ma you’ve suf­fered.

What triggers birth trauma

We’ve already said that birth trau­ma hap­pens because of men­tal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, or phys­i­cal dis­tress expe­ri­enced dur­ing child­birth.

Now, let’s get spe­cif­ic and talk about the most com­mon caus­es of dis­tress. It’s impor­tant to note that my list of birth-trau­ma-caus­ing events is not exhaus­tive.

Many caus­es are impos­si­ble to deter­mine because the expe­ri­ence of trau­ma is a very per­son­al one. What may be trau­mat­ic to one per­son may not be trau­mat­ic to anoth­er, even in the same space.

Expe­ri­ences dur­ing child­birth that can trig­ger post­na­tal PTSD include:

• Emer­gency treat­ment for you or your baby
• Pro­longed labor that becomes dif­fi­cult
• Unplanned cesare­an sec­tion
• Any oth­er shock­ing and unplea­sur­able expe­ri­ence dur­ing child­birth

Part­ners, as I have men­tioned, can suf­fer birth trau­ma, too. Watch­ing your baby or your part­ner strug­gle dur­ing or after deliv­ery is a new type of pain that noth­ing ade­quate­ly pre­pares you for. 

A Birth Trauma Story

Many women and their birthing part­ners have gone through birth trau­ma and post­na­tal PTSD — a few have shared their sto­ries.

This is an excerpt from the end of the sto­ry of Olivia, a moth­er with a rare con­di­tion of pla­cen­ta acc­re­ta who saw too much of her blood to ever be the same again.

“When peo­ple hear the term PTSD, they think they know what it is – a men­tal health con­di­tion that sol­diers suf­fer after wit­ness­ing hor­rors of war. No one real­ly believes that it can hap­pen to a woman fol­low­ing the birth of her baby. No one wants to hear this. Birth is sup­posed to be a glo­ri­ous, life-chang­ing event when pre­cious mem­o­ries are cre­at­ed that will be cher­ished of the rest of the woman’s life. But that wasn’t the case for me.”

You can read the full sto­ry here.

 

How birth trauma therapy can help

Ther­a­py remains the most effec­tive way to treat post­na­tal PTSD, stand­ing taller than any oth­er treat­ment type, includ­ing med­ica­tions.

Birth trau­ma ther­a­py can help you process and under­stand your emo­tions and even­tu­al­ly reclaim your life so you can expe­ri­ence par­ent­hood more ful­ly. 

 

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is one treat­ment approach for treat­ing birth trau­ma. As a licensed expert and Cer­ti­fied EMDR ther­a­pist, I’ve seen how effec­tive EMDR can be. 

Dur­ing an EMDR ses­sion, we will dis­cuss your symp­toms, their impact, and how you have made sense, if at all, of your birth trau­ma. EMDR is designed to acti­vate both sides of your brain (bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion), which helps you process and come to terms with your emo­tions.

At the end of EMDR ther­a­py, you will be able to remem­ber your child­birth expe­ri­ence with­out it being over­shad­owed by neg­a­tive emo­tions.

 

Therapists in Utah 

If you or any­one you know has expe­ri­enced birth trau­ma and are now see­ing the symp­toms of post­na­tal PTSD, do not ignore it or feel like you have to han­dle it by your­self.

You are not alone. With ther­a­py, you can learn to live with laugh­ter again and move for­ward with your child.

Please reach out for a free con­sul­ta­tion.

Sched­ule your free 15-minute con­sul­ta­tion