The Truth About Birth Trauma & How to Finally Heal from it
How can you really begin to move on after a difficult birth?
It is very sad to know the scary truth about Birth Trauma here in Australia, and that 1 in 3 women are reporting their births as traumatic.
You may be nodding your head reading this, as you yourself may have experienced a difficult birth, and let’s face it, you only have to start talking to couples about their births, and the horrific stories start pouring out.
Up to 6% of these women go on to develop acute stress disorder (ASD) or post partum traumatic stress disorder(PPTSD)
1 in 7 mothers and 1 in 10 fathers will develop Post Natal Depression (PND)
These statistics are not okay, and clearly the system around birth is not working, because it is not your body that is failing.
Let’s look at how birth trauma is defined
Birth trauma is defined as
- A loss of a sense of control
- Not feeling heard by health professionals
- Feeling isolated and alone
- Feeling anxious and afraid
- Fearing for your baby and your own life
What does it effect?
- Sense of self – when you believed you could birth, and you ended up feeling like a failure. It can have a profound effect on your self esteem
- Self-confidence – doubting your ability to be a good parent, good partner, doubting your ability to read your babies cues correctly
- Relationships – partner, family, friends, social groups, feeling withdrawn
- Bonding – don’t get the rush of hormones, affects bonding, let down, recovery, energy, ability to cope
- Future births – trauma stays with you, and you take that trauma and fear into the next birth
- Development of baby – staying inside, not interacting, no stimulation, lack of bonding, baby may then lack a sense of security which can lead to future mental health of the child and a delay in the child’s development
Can you ever forget?
Child Birth is a monumental and transformational event in a couples life, and whether it’s the most powerful, ecstatic, joyful experience or the most terrifying horrendous experience, the fact is that it is never really forgotten.. Today birth stories are written, videos are shared all over the internet and no one birth experience is exactly like another. Every woman has a different journey, it is deeply personal and something you carry always.
Can you heal?
The great news is ‘Yes’!
Don’t suffer in silence, even if you don’t think that your birth was ‘bad’ enough to warrant getting help.
What we perceive as a great birth, can hold some deep trauma for women because of the way they were treated, or because of how they were feeling. In HypnoBirthing we teach that fears, beliefs and previous births experiences can have a profound effect on the way we give birth, and our couples go through a process of releasing the things that may get in the way of them having a positive birth. We are see increasing numbers of women reaching out to us because they don’t want to experience another birth like their last.
The same techniques we use in HypnoBirthing can be used to heal your birth trauma, and help you find inner peace again. Doing that inner work is where it is at, and we have a guided hypnosis album called ‘Healing Birth Trauma from Within’ available because we know how important it is to get this help.
This ‘Healing Birth Trauma from Within’ guided meditation is a must have for any woman that has had a difficult or traumatic birth experience and is ready to find some inner peace. This beautiful album will help you to release and let go of the negative association and emotions that you may be carrying as a result of your experience.
Whether you have recently birthed, or you have been holding onto your birth experience for years, or decades, you can allow yourself to be transported on a journey into a beautiful forest scene where you are able to safely review your birth experience with the ‘wise women’ and gently let go of the emotional baggage that you have accumulated. Deeply relaxing and deeply healing , you can listen to it again and again and have a different healing experience each time.
This guided meditation has been written and spoken by Diana Fischer, a Clinical Hypnotherapist and experienced HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator in Perth, Western Australia.
CLICK HERE to read Diana’s personal story for why she wrote this album and the importance of healing birth trauma from within.
Diana says ‘Women need to know there is help and support out there if they have experienced a traumatic birth and they all deserve the support. (I believe even women who have had mostly positive births still need to debrief and process aspects of their birth as birth itself is such a huge process physically emotionally and spiritually!)
If you or someone you know has experienced birth trauma and needs help there are some Australian organisations that can help:
A testimonial from a mother that used the album
“After 2 very traumatic birth experiences, the last being a 25 weeker born 6 months ago, I was eager to find a way to heal emotionally. This is when I stumbled upon this life changing meditation by Diana. I have done one or two meditations before, but they were nothing like this! During the meditation I was able to completely relax and immerse myself in Diana’s guidance. I found that she was saying things just as I was thinking them. Almost as if she was reading my mind! This meditation really helped me to let go of a lot of emotional pain I had been holding onto since the birth of my babies, and even had tears streaming down my face the first few times I listened to it. I now listen to this meditation at least once a week, simply because it relaxes me so much! Thank you Diana for sharing such a beautiful meditation. You truly have a wonderful gift”.
– Nicola gunner
Sources:
https://www.birthtrauma.org.au/
https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eserv/rmit:161990/Yates.pdf
