Trauma can be described as a deeply distressing experience or emotional shock following a stressful event.  Birth related trauma is more common than you might think. The Birth Trauma Association estimate that 20,000 women are affected by a trauma during child birth each year.  This does not just affect women but also their birth partners and birth professionals.  

The word trauma itself can be misleading however, as some people may feel or be told that they should not be traumatised by their experience if both mother and baby are well.  But this is not the case, as it’s the woman’s perception of the experience and how she was treated that is most important. It is not only life-threatening or emergency situations during childbirth which can lead to trauma.   

We do not know why some people are negatively impacted by their birth experience while others are not.  However, a woman can be left feeling traumatised by her experience for many different reasons. She may be feeling:

• out of control
• disrespected
• violated
• a sense of loss of dignity
• alone or abandoned
• helpless
• ignored, not listened to or invisible
• that her own or her baby’s life were in danger
• that she received poor postnatal care or had difficulties with breastfeeding