00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:10
hello everyone I'm Penny simkin and
00:00:13
today I'd like to talk with you about
00:00:15
birth trauma uh a rather dark subject
00:00:18
but a very important one and uh I think
00:00:20
if we know a little more about it uh we
00:00:23
can reduce its severity um about one
00:00:27
woman in four these days reports that
00:00:30
her birth was
00:00:31
traumatic and uh that's a lot and uh
00:00:36
when we if if you do the math uh we do
00:00:38
about 4 million births a year in the
00:00:41
United States and one in four would be
00:00:44
TW uh excuse me one in four would be a
00:00:46
million women a year uh reporting that
00:00:49
their births were traumatic so it's a
00:00:52
big topic and it's an important one and
00:00:54
we need to know more about it now what
00:00:56
is birth trauma or what is traumatic
00:00:59
birth you can look at it either way and
00:01:01
uh it begins with the event itself which
00:01:04
was the birth and it depends on how the
00:01:07
woman herself perceives it so if the
00:01:10
woman believed that she was in danger
00:01:12
physically or emotionally that her baby
00:01:15
was in dangered in some way
00:01:17
physically uh and if she felt kind of O
00:01:20
out of control helpless um abandoned or
00:01:23
alone or disrespected all of those
00:01:26
things can cause a woman to be
00:01:29
traumatized I by the birth
00:01:31
experience now as after the birth uh
00:01:35
some women go on and actually develop
00:01:37
the symptoms of post-traumatic stress
00:01:39
disorder the same disorder that our
00:01:42
veterans have come home from Afghanistan
00:01:44
and Iraq with
00:01:46
PTSD others who had a traumatic birth do
00:01:49
not have as severe symptoms so let me
00:01:52
just list some of the symptoms uh you
00:01:55
may have gone through this yourself you
00:01:57
may be in it yourself you may know
00:01:59
somebody who has had a really tough
00:02:01
birth so I think it's good to know what
00:02:03
kinds of symptoms might be coming up um
00:02:08
we talk about intrusion she may have
00:02:10
flashbacks at times or nightmares of
00:02:12
finding herself dwelling on or thinking
00:02:15
about the experience um uh just out of
00:02:18
the blue um she may have avoidance
00:02:21
behavior some people don't want to talk
00:02:23
about the birth uh because it just is so
00:02:26
upsetting to them to be
00:02:28
reminded they may not want to go back to
00:02:30
their doctor for their postpartum
00:02:31
checkup they may not want to get
00:02:34
together with other friends who have
00:02:35
babies um they may even avoid family if
00:02:38
the family is not understanding of their
00:02:41
feelings then um some some have uh they
00:02:44
have a lot of blame they feel they were
00:02:46
mistreated they feel a mistake was made
00:02:49
um they feel that uh it should not have
00:02:51
happened and uh so blame or other
00:02:54
negative feelings about other people
00:02:57
involved are common uh common feelings
00:02:59
feelings and then we have uh
00:03:02
hyperarousal uh
00:03:04
irritability um uh finding themselves
00:03:07
getting angry quickly um these some
00:03:10
sleep disturbances finding that even
00:03:12
when the baby's asleep and the whole
00:03:13
household is asleep the woman can't
00:03:16
sleep she's ruminating she's thinking
00:03:18
about it so if a person has a certain
00:03:21
number of these symptoms and it goes on
00:03:23
for at least a month she's considered to
00:03:25
have post-traumatic stress disorder so
00:03:27
now what do we do with this uh whether
00:03:30
you have all those symptoms or just a
00:03:32
few of them it's serious and it should
00:03:35
not be neglected and one of the biggest
00:03:38
problems that people who have had a
00:03:39
traumatic birth have is that when they
00:03:41
try to talk about it to their Partners
00:03:43
or their family members or friends they
00:03:47
keep being told well look you've got a
00:03:49
healthy baby what are you worrying about
00:03:51
don't dwell on that forget about that
00:03:54
part and focus on the positive think
00:03:55
about the positive be grateful for what
00:03:57
you
00:03:58
have and then she feels even more
00:04:01
misunderstood or abandoned than ever and
00:04:04
she can't get it out of her mind so this
00:04:07
is what uh a traumatic birth can do to
00:04:10
someone in the early uh mothering period
00:04:14
uh early parenting period some women are
00:04:17
at greater risk than others um it may be
00:04:20
uh that the a person who has a traumatic
00:04:23
birth this won't be her first trauma it
00:04:26
might be that in her childhood she
00:04:27
suffered traumatic events sexual abuse
00:04:29
physical abuse neglect uh she may have
00:04:34
been uh shamed at times uh she she may
00:04:38
have been in a serious accident or um
00:04:41
been uh you know lost on a hike or
00:04:44
something or gone through a disaster
00:04:46
like a hurricane so previous trauma can
00:04:49
kind of lower the threshold for future
00:04:51
trauma and if it doesn't get
00:04:53
resolved then she may be uh a candidate
00:04:57
for
00:04:58
PTSD so this is why I think we need to
00:05:01
understand it but what what can be done
00:05:03
about it knowing the risk factors
00:05:04
knowing how it can play out what can can
00:05:07
be done well first of all uh as a doula
00:05:10
myself I I think I'm aware when a woman
00:05:14
is going through a birth that is
00:05:15
traumatizing to her I I know what she
00:05:18
had wanted I know what her hopes and
00:05:20
expectations were and I can see that
00:05:22
they're not going uh in that direction
00:05:25
that she's uh upset by it and at the
00:05:28
moment as a du may be able to talk with
00:05:31
her to boil it down and say this is a
00:05:33
tough moment right now and what we must
00:05:35
do right now is this and just focus her
00:05:38
on the moment and getting through it and
00:05:40
I feel that that sometimes can prevent
00:05:43
that traumatic birth from developing all
00:05:45
the symptoms later down the road and of
00:05:47
course not only a doula can do that but
00:05:50
a care provider could do that uh a nurse
00:05:52
if they recognize that this is uh this
00:05:55
has the makings for a traumatic birth uh
00:05:58
the partner could also do it but
00:05:59
sometimes the partner is caught up in
00:06:00
the trauma himself or
00:06:03
herself so so first of all if we can
00:06:06
prevent it during the time but then
00:06:08
afterwards uh taking these symptoms
00:06:10
seriously possibly having a talk with
00:06:13
the the care provider uh and asking
00:06:16
questions you know what really happened
00:06:18
why was this done um you know uh why
00:06:21
didn't you recognize it and stop it
00:06:24
whatever um but also uh taking good care
00:06:28
of oneself
00:06:30
uh you owe yourself enough sleep every
00:06:34
day to get through the day and sometimes
00:06:37
people get up in the morning before they
00:06:39
really uh have gotten enough sleep it'
00:06:41
be better to feed the baby and go back
00:06:43
to bed and keep doing that until um
00:06:46
until she's gotten enough sleep sleep is
00:06:49
a A Healer for trauma um other things
00:06:53
exercise uh sometimes during the day it
00:06:55
would be so helpful if you could burn up
00:06:57
some energy uh not just just internally
00:07:00
uh eating having it eat away at you but
00:07:03
get out put the baby in the stroller and
00:07:05
rush you know walk briskly uh for
00:07:08
several blocks and uh work some of that
00:07:10
out uh that also helps us sleep at night
00:07:13
um taking uh yoga uh uh yoga exercises
00:07:18
or other types of uh physical exercise
00:07:20
can can be helpful there and sometimes
00:07:23
body work uh sometimes with good uh a
00:07:28
good body worker can help a person
00:07:30
process and and get rid of emotions that
00:07:32
are um damaging emotions just through
00:07:36
the body um we also uh I would recommend
00:07:39
counseling uh trauma therapists really
00:07:42
know their stuff when it comes to uh uh
00:07:45
trauma and if you can find a trauma
00:07:47
therapist who knows about
00:07:49
birth they can help you work through
00:07:51
many of these issues very very
00:07:54
efficiently um so the treatments are
00:07:57
possible and the good news is that as
00:08:00
people start to feel better and you can
00:08:01
expect to feel better you can expect to
00:08:03
feel better taking some of these
00:08:05
measures um your feelings toward the
00:08:08
baby at first you might be feeling kind
00:08:09
of like a caretaker uh not having enough
00:08:12
to give for the baby in terms of love
00:08:14
affection and feeling that Bond but as
00:08:17
you start to feel better you begin to
00:08:18
respond to your baby in a very different
00:08:20
way one woman who had had quite a
00:08:22
traumatic birth told me I remember the
00:08:25
moment I fell in love with my
00:08:27
baby he was 2 months old
00:08:30
we were in the cookie aisle at Safeway
00:08:33
and all of a sudden I felt this torrent
00:08:35
of love for the baby I burst into tears
00:08:37
and grabbed him and I felt differently
00:08:39
I've been feeling like a babysitter
00:08:40
until then but you see time and
00:08:44
attention to your needs uh does result
00:08:47
in healing and recovery and so that's
00:08:49
what we're after and I want to just end
00:08:52
with this term post-traumatic
00:08:55
growth it's a rather new term because
00:08:58
we've you know we've only been studying
00:08:59
trauma for a few years in especially in
00:09:02
relation to birth but now we recognize
00:09:05
that when one has recovered from that
00:09:08
trauma has resolved it the good news is
00:09:12
that that person is stronger than ever
00:09:13
before stronger more capable more
00:09:16
confident than ever before so it isn't
00:09:18
just a matter of getting over it it's a
00:09:20
matter of getting above it resolving it
00:09:23
and triumphing over it so it's
00:09:25
definitely worth attending to this need
00:09:28
and uh and uh with the great hope that
00:09:31
you can move Beyond it and you're going
00:09:33
to be better for it so thank you very
00:09:36
much and I do want to tell you about an
00:09:38
organization called patch uh p a t
00:09:44
c I'd like to invite you to visit patch.
00:09:47
org patch stands for prevention and
00:09:50
treatment of traumatic childbirth there
00:09:51
are many articles and resources on that
00:09:54
website and information about
00:09:56
conferences and things of that nature
00:09:58
and you might want to visit there to
00:09:59
learn a little bit more and uh uh be
00:10:02
steered uh toward some very helpful
00:10:05
resources so thank you for watching
00:10:07
today and I'd like to invite you to uh
00:10:10
contact me uh if you have any comments
00:10:13
on this this presentation or any others
00:10:15
or questions that you'd like me to
00:10:17
address and I'd love suggestions for
00:10:19
topics for the future if I'm capable
00:10:22
I'll try to address them thank you very
00:10:24
much
00:10:25
[Music]
