All this week we are sharing content around birth trauma: you can read the stats on this condition from the Birth Trauma Association here and Nat’s experience with a birth listening service here.
Words: Kat Stevens
I think as a society we tend to view birth as something we endure and get on with, that pain and trauma are a necessary part of the experience. People seem to openly and often graphically discuss their birth experience, in fact, it seems we are taught to just get on with it. After all, women give birth every day don’t they? Is it a badge of honour?
When people asked me about the births of my son, I would lie and say, it was long, but it was fine and not want to have to think about it, let alone talk about it. It wasn’t until 7 years after his birth, that I reprocessed the emotional response attached to its memory, and it was actually during my training in the practice itself.
Now, and actually immediately after my rewind session when asked about his birth, I am filled with such happiness and my response is “I met him”, my overriding memory is when I saw his face, and even as I write this, I am choked with happy emotions.
A traumatic birth experience can present as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Any traumatic event that hasn’t processed effectively can present as PTSD, its not just a wartime experience amongst soldiers.
How do you know if you are experiencing PTSD relating to giving birth?
When you think back to your pregnancy or birth experience do you feel a sense of distress? And if you were to rate this level of distress between 0 ad 10, (with 0 being no distress and 10 the worse you can imagine) where do you sit? If it’s above a 2, chances are that you are experiencing Post Traumatic Stress. Perhaps you want to move on, or others are advising you to do this, after all, women all over the world experience birth…
You may have been offered support from the hospital or birth centre and an opportunity to talk about it, but sometimes talking about it may reignite the feelings and doesn’t provide resolution. Equally, on the face of it others may not view the experience as traumatic, but It’s your distress response on recollection that is key.
Traumatic events: the science part
When we are in heightened, traumatic experience, we are in survival instinct, fight or flight is at play and the part of the brain involved is the amygdala. It’s an incredible instinctive system to keep you save, no time to stop and think, we need to act and act fast. A sensory memory is formed.
When the danger has passed the sensory memory is passed to a part of the brain called the hippocampus and then to the neocortex (the human part of the brain that applies logic and reason). Here it is translated into a verbal memory and stored. But sometimes the neocortex cannot step in and the memory gets inextricably linked to the heightened emotions experienced such as fear and helplessness and is stored as sensory memory, in effect trapped in the amygdala.
If the memory stays with the emotion, you may experience any of the following: hypervigilance ( a state of high alertness); being overly anxious about others with your baby; not wanting to let go of your baby, a sense of anxiety; potential bonding issues or nightmares and flashback. Where I see it the most in my fertility practice is when people start to try for a second or third baby. In effect, their body is feeling in danger and this in turn could affect their chances of conceiving.
The rewind technique I use
When working with someone who scores greater than a 2 in the distress score I mentioned, I use the rewind technique. In my experience, It’s an effective treatment for PTSD and is quick and effective and can be done 1-2 sessions, in person or online.
The technique works by allowing the individual to reprocess the traumatic memory whilst in a safe relaxed state. What is important to note here is that you do not have to talk about the traumatic element of birth at all, unless you want to.
This means that the memory can become stored as an ‘ordinary’ event, it may still be an unpleasant one but will be non- threatening and therefore won’t cause a fear or distress response. What happens is that the memory is in effect moved from the amygdala to the neocortex.
You are never too old to have your birth memory reprocessed, the oldest ‘birth’ I worked with was one that happened 20 years previously and I know of birth Memory’s “rewound ‘ 50 years later.
About the author
Kat Stevens is a Birth Trauma Practitioner and Fertility Coach. Email kat@Katstevens.co.uk for more information
One comment