My daughter has just had her first baby, and thankfully, both mother and baby are now home and doing well. However, the experience did not go entirely to plan. As a result, I listened with interest to a recent SKY news interview with journalist Hannah Barnes and read her article in the New Statesman titled ‘The Trauma Ward’.  It’s an uncomfortable but sadly familiar story of birth trauma, and my overwhelming reaction to it was that women should be having better experiences.

My own memories of childbirth are from 30+ years ago, and I had hoped that in 2024, things could have only improved. Unfortunately, they haven’t. Birth trauma is very common in our overstretched and understaffed hospitals. Beds on wards are not available, women are left for hours, often in pain, and advice from the medical staff is conflicting.

Giving birth is intensely emotional, and a bad birth experience can have a lasting impact on new mums and their partners and affect bonding with your baby. There are numerous potential causes for birth trauma, and these include:

• Complications during delivery,
• Lack of support,
• Not being listened to,
• Loss of control over the process,
• Fear

Unfortunately, none of this is addressed in pre-natal classes where the focus is very much on “natural births” and to just “breathe through it”! As a hypnotherapist, I understand the power of breath, and learning to breathe in a certain way to cope with anxiety and pain is valuable and helps tremendously. However, to gloss over the fact that some women will be totally reliant on medication to cope is extraordinary!

As Hannah says in her article – the subject of tearing would be helpful to talk about and “to know how best to care for ourselves afterwards”.  But in her class, this was met with the response, “No need”, and instead, they all practised putting nappies on a doll.  

Women are not appropriately prepared for the birth experience, and we are still led to believe that it will all happen instinctively. This is why as many as 35% of women will experience birth trauma, and many will go on to have post-natal depression and symptoms of PTSD after giving birth.  

Every year in Britain, 25,000 women are so distressed by their experiences that they meet the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. As Hannah says, “This makes birth one of the biggest causes of PTSD in the UK, coming second only to sexual abuse and rape.”  That is an appalling statistic. We need urgent action to address this now.

So, if your birth plan did not work out, what can you do to help yourself deal with those complicated feelings that you may have, often that you have somehow failed?

How hypnotherapy can help birth trauma

Hypnotherapy is a gentle and effective way to bring about positive change.  I can help you to break the cycle of distress and panic – enabling your body and mind to release any trauma you have gone through as a consequence of a challenging delivery or any other difficult pre- or post-natal experiences. Acknowledging the emotional impact is vital for healing and general wellbeing going forward.

Trauma lives in the subconscious part of the mind, and with hypnosis – a natural state of trance – we can re-frame the way we think about it – stop the painful flashbacks and re-balance the mind. You will be liberated from the immediate past and feel empowered and confident as you begin your motherhood journey.

If reading this has resonated with you, please get in touch with me for an online appointment.