In plain words
Birth trauma is the name many mothers and clinicians use for distress that follows a birth that felt frightening, painful, or out of control. It can happen after a vaginal birth or a , and it can happen even when the baby and mother are both well. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, , avoiding reminders of the birth, or feeling numb. Some mothers feel guilt or anger about what happened. Birth trauma is not a formal diagnosis in the main psychiatric manuals. Clinicians may instead look for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety, which can follow a difficult birth. Screening questions are often used to check for these. Help exists for these symptoms, and they are common after a hard birth.
The deeper version
Birth trauma is a non-diagnostic term for subjective distress after childbirth. It is measured with instruments such as the City Birth Trauma Scale (Ayers, Wright, and Thornton, 2018) and general measures including the and the Impact of Event Scale. Prevalence estimates of birth-related posttraumatic stress vary widely with the instrument, the timing, and the population. Depression () and anxiety () are screened concurrently because comorbidity is common. Risk factors reported in the literature include perceived loss of control, emergency intervention, severe pain, and inadequate support. Debate centers on whether the construct should be defined by the event or by the mother's appraisal of it, and on whether clinical categories fit the experience. Measurement and treatment pathways remain an active research area.
Where it comes up
- Birth trauma and postpartum PTSDPostpartum: Mind
- Telling your birth storyBirth and the First Days
- When birth didn't go to planBirth and the First Days
- Postpartum anxietyPostpartum: Mind
- Postpartum depressionPostpartum: Mind
What mothers here say about birth trauma
No one has posted under this term yet.
Sources
- Ayers S, Wright DB, Thornton A — Development of a measure of postnatal stress (City Birth Trauma Scale). Frontiers in Psychology, 2018
- American Psychiatric Association — DSM-5-TR, 2022, posttraumatic stress disorder criteria