Healing After Delivery: Birth Trauma
Category: Parenting Tips
February 21, 2025
What is birth trauma?
Birth is an intense experience, both physically and emotionally. Birth trauma is the physical or emotional distress that occurs during or after childbirth. It can impact the birthing person’s health, well-being and relationships.1,2 Birth trauma is part of the larger set of perinatal mental health conditions.
Birth trauma isn't about what specifically happened during birth. It's about how someone felt about what happened. Two women could have the same birthing experience. But because of their past experiences, relationships or other factors, it could be traumatic for one and not the other.
Everyone who has experienced a difficult, severe or upsetting birth could experience birth trauma.
What causes birth trauma?
While every person’s birthing experience is different, there are things that might make birth feel traumatic.
A really hard birth or one that causes physical injury can be traumatic. Births that are an emergency or feel rushed can bring a lot of distress on the mother. This can include cesareans, fast births, prolonged pushing phase, or even an induction due to stress on the mom or baby.
Painful or invasive procedures or interventions can cause birth trauma. This is especially true if someone has experienced interpersonal violence or mistreatment.
When the mother does not feel heard or understood during pregnancy and birth, she may experience trauma. Additionally, this includes lack of support or having their feelings invalidated by a provider.
Of course any infant loss or near loss is traumatizing for nearly everyone involved. Adding grief to a difficult physical recovery is challenging for women and their partners.
These are just some of the ways that birth trauma can occur. Lastly, structural inequities and discrimination create systems that perpetuate trauma, including birth trauma. Unfortunately, the effects are felt for the next generation.
What does the experience of birth trauma feel like?
Birth trauma is varied and complex. For some moms it can feel like the “Baby Blues,” but it lasts past the period of hormonal shifts. This persistent feeling can show up at random times and even lay dormant for weeks or months before surfacing.
- Heightened Anxiety and Hypervigilance: Moms may feel worried all the time, even about little things, like they’re always on alert. Or they may have obsessive-compulsive behavior or intrusive thoughts, which make it difficult to connect with the baby.
- Disconnection and Isolation: Detachment from the baby is a common symptom. Mothers may also disconnect from their partners, friends, and family.This can lead to further isolation. This can make the problem worse or even hinder the baby’s development.
- Sleep Issues and Irritability: Difficulty sleeping, including nightmares or a fear of sleep, is common. Sleep deprivation during the newborn phase with the added emotional distress can lead to irritability, mood swings and difficulty concentrating.
- Flashbacks and Disbelief: Intrusive memories of the birth experience can come up. Moms may also feel disbelief, struggling to reconcile what happened with their expectations.
How to minimize risk for birth trauma
We can't control every aspect of the birthing process. However, you can minimize the risk of birth trauma and contribute to a more positive and empowering experience.
Educate yourself.
Attend childbirth classes, talk with experienced mothers or a nurse, or consult with your doctor. Ask lots of questions! Knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions, and can reduce anxiety before birth. It’s also important to understand your own needs, triggers, or past traumas and find coping mechanisms. Nurses in our Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) are here to help with exactly this during the prenatal, birth and post-partum period.
Advocate.
If you feel your concerns are being dismissed, speak up for yourself or get support. Nurses often recommend the CUS method (Concerned, Uncomfortable, Safety) for clearly expressing your concerns. Bring a partner, friend or family member to your doctor appointments, especially if they will be by your side during birth.
Create a birth plan.
Birth often doesn’t follow a plan. You can have the best intentions and still have a birth with last-minute changes. But it’s still a good idea to consider and articulate what you’d like your birth experience to be like. You can wear your own clothes or have your favorite things with you during birth. You can create a playlist that calms you (or motivates you!) during birth. Plan to make the space as personalized for you as you can. Here’s a template to get you started (available in Spanish).
Find birth support.
You’ll want to have someone who knows your birth plan and can provide emotional support during labor and delivery. Local doula programs offer valuable support and resources, sometimes including free childcare. Check out Giving Austin Labor Support (GALS), Black Mamas ATX, and the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative.
Prepare for post-partum.
The focus is often on the birth itself, but the postpartum period is equally important! Just as you prepare for the arrival of your newborn, prepare for your own postpartum recovery. This blog post will help you prepare for your new baby and have guided conversations with your partner or family members who are supporting you.
What to do if you’ve experienced birth trauma
If you’ve experienced a traumatic birth, we urge you to find support. That will look different for each person. You may benefit from support groups, therapists, or resuming or starting nourishing activities.
Connect with local groups like Any Baby Can’s Moms Connect or PiP (Partners in Parenting) to build community. Birth trauma is unfortunately prevalent, and you'll likely find others who have shared similar experiences. There are even online peer support groups as well as podcasts, books, and other resources available.
Medical Trauma Support, who we interviewed for this article, offers resources on birth trauma, including a three-part podcast series.
If you experience any symptoms of birth trauma, seek professional help. Counseling services, support groups, and medications are available. NuturedTX is a great resource for mental health support. Loving Parents has affordable, trauma-informed individual and group therapy. You can also use the Maternal Mental Health Hotline, a confidential, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. The hotline is accessible by phone or text at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262) in English and Spanish.
Processing your experience is a part of healing, and it’s essential for both your own health and the healthy development of your baby.
For more data or recommended books, read the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s fact sheet.
1 March of Dimes, The toll of birth trauma on your health, https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/postpartum/toll-birth-trauma-your-health.
2 Leinweber, J., Fontein-Kuipers, Y., Thomson, G., Karlsdottir, S. I., Nilsson, C., Ekström-Bergström, A., Olza, I., Hadjigeorgiou, E., & Stramrood, C. (2022). Developing a woman-centered, inclusive definition of traumatic childbirth experiences: A discussion paper. Birth (Berkeley, Calif.), 49 (4), 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/birt.12634.
3 Pidd, D., Newton, M., Wilson, I., & East, C. (2023). Optimising maternity care for a subsequent pregnancy after a psychologically traumatic birth: A scoping review. Women and birth. Journal of the Australian College of Midwives, 36(5), e471–e480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2023.03.006.
4 Salter, C., Wint, K., Burke, J., Chang, J.C., Documet, P., Kaselitz, E., Mendez, D. (2023). Overlap Between Birth Trauma and Mistreatment: A Qualitative Analysis Exploring American Clinician Perspectives on Patient Birth Experiences. Reproductive Health, Apr21;20(1):63. https://doi: 10.1186/s12978-023-01604-0.
5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2023). One in Five Women Reported Mistreatment While Receiving Maternity Care. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/s0822-vs-maternity-mistreatment.html.
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