Susanne Remic is a primary school teacher, freelance writer and parenting blogger. She writes at Ghostwritermummy and Maternity Matters and in between all of that she regularly wins mummy of the year awards for running around after her two children, aged six and 19 months. This is her pregnancy blog: an online diary of her third pregnancy as she strives to overcome two difficult births, one angel child and one awkward toddler. Join Susanne as she shares every step of her journey from bump to baby!
Should midwives be trained in birth trauma?
By Susanne Remic on 24 Oct 2011
I am speaking from my own experience, as this is the only thing I can do. I am not professionally qualified in anything medical and I do not claim to be. I do, however, know a little about birth trauma and sadly, it seems that that is more than some medical professionals. If you are a midwife, please understand that this is not an attack. This is merely an observation.
I think that midwives should be trained to recognise and deal with birth trauma. I think that it should be part of the training and I think that birth trauma should be taken seriously.
I can imagine that for a person who delivers babies every day, there is probably one woman in a group of ten or maybe twenty that is left traumatised. It might seem that the woman in question has been traumatised by something that the other nineteen were not. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t entitled to be traumatised. This doesn’t mean that it is OK to move on from this woman, seeing as the others were OK.
A midwife has told me that she has witnessed true trauma and that emergency sections are not traumatic to others and therefore should not be to me either. I didn’t get the chance to explain that my c-section wasn’t the traumatic part of my son’s birth. I’d already had a c-section before, I wanted a c-section the second time. Being sliced open to save my son’s life didn’t traumatise me. It was everything else.
That aside, I have come to realise something. If I had been able to deal with my pre-existing fear of childbirth before I went into labour with my son, I believe that his birth would have been so different. If I had been given the chance to explain why I wanted an elective section, perhaps the professionals could have worked with me to gain confidence in myself, my body and the act of childbirth. As it happened, the minute I felt a contraction I descended into panic. It was over before it began. Despite everything else that went wrong, I had already decided that I couldn’t do it.
After my son was born, the midwives at the hospital failed to recognise that I needed help understanding what had happened to me and why I was feeling the way I was. This is not their fault. If they are not taught to understand, they will never be able to. I think that if I had received support soon after his birth, my son and I would have bonded sooner.
Many medical professionals still do not understand birth trauma. Ok, so my baby is alive and healthy- but that does not mean that I am not allowed to be upset by what happened. For a medical professional to imply this... it speaks volumes. It’s time to educate people- and not just midwives- about birth trauma. People need to know how to recognise it, how to deal with it and how to talk about it. It’s time for change, time for mental health to be lifted from taboo status.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this blog, you may find it beneficial to share your views, offer and seek advice in complete confidence on the Pregnancy Problems and Birth Trauma message board
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