Birth trauma
Birth trauma is unfortunately experienced by a growing number of women. During pregnancy women ponder the birth of their baby, their hopes and dreams may vary widely. Some may dream of an idyllic home birth, others are planning for a calm and positive birth centre or hospital birth, and yet others may be pondering elective caesarean. But while women may stand divided in planning their births, sadly some will stand united in the aftermath of a traumatic birth. A traumatic birth, no matter how it comes about or what occurs, is the death of a dream – the dream of the birth we hoped and planned for and all we believed would come with it. This section seeks to validate the sense of anger, sadness and loss that can accompany a traumatic birth through the words of those who have experienced it, and those who try to prevent it.
Birth trauma articles
Natural, or normal physiological birth occurs when no drugs or interventions are employed while a woman labours to birth her baby vaginally. For some women, considering the use of some interventions is necessary and essential to their health and that of their baby. However the rate of interventions has serious implications for babies and women.
Bashi Hazard, an Australian consumer lawyer, has written an open letter to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) in response to their claim that women are responsible for the high rates of medical intervention in birth.
The medical model of childbirth is broken right to the core. When I was just getting started with this birthing thing I was pretty enthusiastic. I did a lot of reading. I wrote optimistic essays about birthing choices for my shockingly bad website.
When we talk of birth trauma, we mean Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that occurs after childbirth. PTSD is the term for a set of normal reactions to a traumatic, scary or bad experience.
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