Strollerderby

This is exactly what I posted on the Jezebel website. Most women are given very little control over what happens during childbirth. The trauma could be a result of feeling powerless and not having the birth experience that was imagined and planned for. With all of the medical intervention and very little knowledge I can see why some women would feel traumatized. Women are encouraged to create multiple page birth plans which are subsequently disregarded as soon as labor begins, or prior to in some cases. The natural births that have been occurring for thousands of years did not include internal and external fetal monitors, IV pitocin, unnatural birth positions, restricted food/drink and being made to stay in bed the entire labor.  All of that for a 'normal' delivery, imagine a difficult or emergency delivery.  

I am absolutely sure that birthing can be traumatic, and although I wasn't treated for it, I know I had some amount of PTSD.  The labor/birth itself wasn't bad.  I only pushed about  five times before my daughter came out.  But afterwards, I hemorrhaged and my doctor had to reach up inside and clear my uterus with no anesthesia.  I was scared out of my wits; it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced.  (Even more painful and scary than crushing my right hand in an electric dough roller.)  I made it through, and went home with my beautiful daughter.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I kept replaying it, vividly reliving it even.  Then about three weeks after the birth, I hemorrhaged again.  I nearly died, and had to have emergency surgery.  Afterwards, I again couldn't stop reliving it.  Most vividly, I kept feeling the sliding pop of the clots coming out and literally covering the bathroom floor. Having a normal period freaked me out for two months.  

I was not upset because my "birth plan" got scuttled.  I am profoundly grateful that I was in a medical situation so that my life could be saved.  The experience was not easy to get over.  It interfered with my ability to enjoy my daughter, who happens to be a wonderful, tiny zen master.  It took time for the images and feelings to stop intruding into my thoughts.  I am better now, but I can't help but feel that the dismissive tone here comes from a place of privilege.

I can definitely see how some women might suffer PTSD after giving birth!  I think Rebecca's story is a perfect example of how it can be traumatizing.  I imagine it's unlikely that a birth that went really smoothly would cause it, but certainly a birth with complications could.

Instead of thinking of it as a way for "the man" to view motherhood as a pathology, maybe some compassion is in order.  People have a variety of experiences, and they cope with them (or have trouble coping with them) in different ways.  And while PTSD is most commonly associated with people who go to war or people who experience extreme violence, there are other, less severe forms of PTSD.  You can experience symptoms from having a scary car accident or seeing someone get horribly injured...  I'm sure the list goes on.  

It's too bad that instead of thinking "hmmm.. that's something to think about," your first reaction is to just to kind of make fun of it.

I think I had PTS after an officially labeled "traumatic" childbirth. I had flashbacks for months. And of course, I did almost die, like a lot of women would (it used to be 10% not long ago) if it were not for modern medicine. What is it in warfare that causes PTS? Isn't it the risk of your life?

A close friend didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labor and delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  She had no time to prep herself for labor and delivery and had no idea what was causing her so much pain until the EMTs told her she was crowning and she needed to push.  It's really hard to imagine, but it happened and was certainly stressful and frightneing enough to cause PTSD

I've never considered that birth could cause such a terrible disorder, but it makes sense!  I've fortunately had two very "normal" deliveries, but I've thought to myself, "wow!  I just came through something unreal!"  It's somewhat traumatic, despite it happening all the time all over the world, even in the best circumstances.

Rebeccas story is definately a great example of PTSD. Birthing is pretty traumatic to your body and usually to your mind (hello hormones that made me laugh, cry, get angry and wonder if i left the iron on at home all in the first 3 seconds of my sons life!) REGARDLESS if millions of women have done it before. You're not millions of women, you're one woman. I'm so annoyed by people who make it seem like its no big deal and to just bare it. Its a HUGE deal! Your balls aren't bigger because you handled it differently or your body responded to it differently. PTSD can exist after child birth. no doubt.

When my therapist told me I was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress nearly a year after the birth of my twins, I was taken aback. But she explained how my birth experience fully met the criteria for PTSD. I spent the next 6 months in therapy (talk therapy and EMDR) and it made a huge difference in my quality of life.

Still, nearly 7 years later, the thought of getting pregnant and giving birth terrifies me. I won't put myself in that position ever again.

I could list all the horrible things I went through, but it shouldn't matter. I had a licensed therapist diagnose and treat me. It doesn't mean motherhood is a "pathology." It simply means that life-threatening complications exist, severe pain exists, and emotions and hormones can amplify and intensify the trauma. And with premature newborn twins to care for, I didn't take the time initially to "deal with" the trauma. I just had babies to take care of. I was in survival mode.

And for what it's worth, I had excellent health care, from caring doctors and nurses, and the support of my family. But sometimes, REALLY bad stuff happens anyway.

I clicked over from Broadsheet but let me add, since you asked, my voice to those of women who have had traumatic labours.

In my case the cord was around my daughter's neck and the monitoring failed. I pushed for 3 hrs without much progress, which was painful, scary, and exhausting.

Then when my daughter's heart stopped and I delivered vaginally out of sheer panic (stretching the cord). I was in profound pain and fear when the alarm literally went off and 12 people came into the room to revive my daughter. She died 4 days later. It was traumatic on many levels, but to summarize briefly the elements that would come into play: I had said I thought the labour was going badly but I wasn't heard; I had no control over the situation; I was in mind bending pain for an extended period of time; then I experienced a rush of fear; then loss and a sense of abandonment (in my case a c-section was delayed because of lack of OBs, it was very unusual, but it still left the sense that we were in a HOSPITAL and no one DID ANYTHING).

This is what I learned: when the numbers around birth outcomes "sound ridiculous" it is often because people who have traumatic labours do not talk about them. In the years since losing my daughter I have connected with so many women who had stillbirths or perinatal losses who simply don't mention them.  Mostly labour comes up when someone is pregnant, and no one wants to scare the pregnant person.

Out of 1,000 births in Canada and the US, between 6 and 9 babies (depending on the year and the stats) do not go home.

These numbers, by the way, are pretty miraculous; people who say birth was always this wonderful natural process until doctors came along are not looking at mortality rates very accurately. (Yes, mortality went up - briefly - when doctors took over from midwives but since then it's been down, down, down.)

So... I actually think 9% for a traumatic labour (with outcomes ranging from tragic to fine, and everything in between - so many babies have mild issues) is reasonable.

I was at a very stressful birth yesterday. The labour and delivery were 36 hours long. I was with the family for 18 hours and 16 of them were spent in the hospital.  

When mom was finally complete, she was told to push when she felt an urge to. She didn't. She never did during the four hours of pushing she endured. Shortly after she started, it was obvious there was meconium in the fluid. By the time the baby was crowning, the meconium was so thick that it turned the baby's scalp green like a little Incredible Hulk.

Even before stage 2, mum was desperately tired. After a few hours of pushing she was tired, demoralized and starting to feel she'd landed herself smack into a Dantean ring of hell. It seemed as if it were her fate to attempt to push her son out for the rest of eternity.

Around the three hour mark, she was given some pitocin that would strengthen her never very strong and waning contractions. As the resident explained the risks and benefits and ended with an open ended comment that seemed to imply that baby may be in jeapordy and mom may end up in emergency surgery, dad had reached his breaking point and had to step away from his fragile wife.

As their doula, my heart broke that this couple who'd been so ready to roll with the punches and eager to embark on the great unknown of first time parenting was now facing constant challenges.

Mother had a horrible amount of physical birth trauma I found difficult to see. She was inadequately anesthetized for the repair and the resident who'd been left to do the work didn't listen when she complained of severe pain. It seemed a miracle that the baby got away from his experience with little more than deep suctioning, but he was born strong and healthy. The poor mother could barely remain awake and had no energy or patience to attempt to breastfeed. At one point she said she was upset because she felt not one little bit of bonding feeling; that she just wasn't interested in the baby at that time because of the traumatic birth.

While the nurses were really wonderful, she went through three different resident changes and had to endure introductions from 6 different interns throughout the day. The family never once met an actual OB, who only walked in as the head was delivered, remained for the delivery of the placenta and left. All actual medical care was performed by students and nurses. Aside from the nursing care, the family vented that they felt deeply let down by the obstetric staff.

When I got home last night and gratefully ate half a pizza, ravenously making up for not eating for an entire day (OK, I had a couple of butterscotch candies), I thought to myself that I should probably spend more time postpartum with this family than I normally do. A birth like this is far more likely to cause postpartum depression disorders than a less traumatic one.

So, yes, I'm pretty darned sure that birth can cause PTSD. After leaving the hospital, I felt like I'd been fighting a war. And I was only the doula! It's not like there was conflict or horrible mismanagement of the labour and delivery, but all of the circumstances of a long, tiring, difficult labour really stress a family, particularly a mom.

Birth in it's most joyous is never an easy journey. When it's difficult it can leave lasting emotional damage.