Birth trauma : the noxious by-product of a failing system

Birth trauma has been a central theme in all the preceding chapters as a main driver leading women to choose to birth outside the system. We end Part 1: Listening to the canary by looking specifically at birth trauma and PTSD. In this chapter, Maddy reports on the research into birth trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following birth and shows how multiple factors, such as a previous history of trauma or mental illness, can make women vulnerable to being traumatised during birth. It is not just what is done to women or the intervention they experience that creates birth trauma. It is also about how women are treated and spoken to that has a negative influence. Agy tells the story of her traumatic birth and how she had to battle her midwives and obstetrician every step of the way to have her choices met and how this led to birth trauma that has still not been resolved. The emerging evidence of the protective effect of continuity of midwifery care and homebirth make it clear that women who seek to freebirth after a traumatic birth are trying to protect themselves from a repeat of the same experience. Birth trauma is the noxious by-product of a system that fails women.