What is birth trauma?

Birth trauma means different things to different people - only YOU get to decide if you've had a negative or traumatic birth experience.  Only YOU get to define what birth trauma means to you.

Common experiences for those who've had a traumatic birth can include (but are not limited to):

• Unexpected interventions

• Unexplained or un-consented interventions

• Being treated rudely or disrespectfully 

• Not being heard or your requests ignored 

• Fearing for your own, or your baby's, life

• Complete loss of control

• Extreme pain and/or exhaustion 

• Fear and confusion

• Malpractice

• Being provided misinformation

• Physical injury - of yourself or your baby

• Baby needing time in NICU, SCBU or NNU

• Baby loss

• Discrimination or disrespect due to ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion, family make up, disability, birth philosophy

• Simply not getting the birth you wanted

How does birth trauma impact?

Having a negative or traumatic birth experience can impact a person in many different ways. Some of these are profound and far-reaching.
Birth trauma can impact:

• Bonding with baby

• Breastfeeding success

• Relationships with spouse/partner/family

• The development of anxiety, depression, general distress

• The development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• The development of hyper-vigilance

• Confidence in parenting

• Physical health

Birth trauma can impact in other ways – the impacts of the birth can be very different between different people as no person, or their experience, is the same.
 

If you feel like you've had a negative or traumatic experience around your birth then that feeling is real and it is valid.  Take a look at our Strategies page to find suggestions for processing and healing your experience.