Causes of Birth Trauma and What You Can Do About It

Traumatized in Childbirth

Research indicates that between 9 and 44% of women experience childbirth as a traumatic event! Birth trauma happens when the mother experiences or believes that she or the baby was at risk of harm or suffered a poor outcome during childbirth. Research has discovered that women who are traumatized from childbirth share some common feelings about the experience.

• They felt like they didn’t have control over their situation, or they felt like they lost control of it.
• They were also dissatisfied with the communication they had with their health practitioners.
• And they felt that they did not have enough practical or emotional support during labor and childbirth.

Women traumatized by childbirth are at risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and having extreme fear of future births. If you have experienced trauma with your prior birth, it may be important for your sense of closure to really understand what happened. Ask your care provider or birthing location for a debriefing appointment, where you can review your medical records with your or another care provider to understand better what happened during your birthing experience. Secondly, have you been able to clarify your feelings about what you felt like went wrong in specific practical terms? Clarifying your feelings will help you identify who you may need to forgive and take concrete steps towards prevention of future issues.

Practical Tips for Preventing Trauma

Here are some examples of practical steps you can take to feel more empowered about your situation:

• Master pain coping skills.
• Become informed regarding the expectations of labor.
• Become informed about (the risks and benefits of) routine medical interventions and hospital policies.
• Use BRAIN when talking to your primary care provider about choices you may be presented in different labor and birth scenarios (Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition, No/Not Now).

Maintain clear and open communication with your care providers by following these steps:

• Create and share your birth plan. Make sure you tape it at head-height on the door of your room.
• Always use BRAIN when talking to care providers about any decision.
• Be very informed about hospital and care provider policies ahead of time.

Practical and emotional support during childbirth is really important. Unfortunately, hospital staff are not with you continuously during labor to provide the kind of constant support women need. Create your own support system:

• Have a doula at your birth. Clearly go over your birth plan with your doula ahead of time. Make sure she is not double booking. Understand her policies.
• Take a childbirth prep class focused on natural coping skills and gets your partner involved. During classes, clarify with your partner to what extent they feel comfortable being involved. Clarify with them ahead of time how exactly you want them to support you.
• Develop a positive mental ritual that helps you cope with labor.

In the end, I cannot promise you that your birth will go as you like or not, but I can assure you that your Savior will carry you through it.  "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb: Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you" Isaiah 46:3,4.

Reference: 
​de Graaff, Lisanne F., Adriaan Honig, Mariëlle G. van Pampus, and Claire A.I. Stramrood. "Preventing post‐traumatic stress disorder following childbirth and traumatic birth experiences: a systematic review." Acta Obstetricia Et Gynecologica Scandinavica 97.6 (2018): 648-656.

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In Birth Ready, we teach you how to use BRAIN to talk to your care provider about birthing options and how to write a birth plan to communicate to your care team your preferences. We make sure you understand well the labor process and teach you effective pain coping skills.

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