One in three Australian Mum's experience birth trauma, one in 10 get PTSD | ABC News

Do you know anyone who has had a traumatic time in childbirth? Chances are you do because up to one in three Australian women have experienced birth trauma and one in 10 women emerge from childbirth with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and according to researchers, the problem is getting worse.
Toowoomba mother Jessica Linwood clutched her husband Daniel's hand as she described the birth of their first child - when she experienced a postpartum haemorrhage - as "terrifying".
"I didn't know if I was going to die or not," she said.
"[A] midwife was pushing on my stomach to contract my uterus back down.
"I had said it hurt and [that] she was hurting me and she told me that I [would] die if she didn't do it.
"Things like that will stick with me forever."
Mr Linwood said it was difficult having no control over what was happening in the moments after his daughter was born and described "mad panic" as medical staff hurried to help his wife.
"She got rushed away. I had a split-second decision to stay with Harper or go with Jess," he said.
Mr Linwood said he was forced to rely on family and friends because there was "no real support" for fathers from professionals.
"I think blokes find it a lot harder to open up to just talk," he said.
The Toowoomba couple said when they fell pregnant with their second child the extent of Ms Linwood's fears were realised and she was treated for PTSD.
"My fear was leaving my daughter without a mother," she said.
"There was no escaping it. I had to give birth again, so I was terrified to go through the same thing for a second time.
"[The second] pregnancy was worse than the first because now I knew that things could go wrong so my anxiety was a lot higher.
"I had a doctor … he had actually said to me [that] he was shocked that I was back to have another one."
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Australia's peak lobby group Maternity Consumer Network blamed the problem on 'over medicalisation' in birth.
Director Alecia Staines said what should be considered a sacred time is leaving women from all walks of life with scars.
"All that matters is a healthy baby so it doesn't matter what happens to the mum - I don't believe that for one second - but that's rhetoric women hear" she said.
"Women are coerced, they're bullied, we hear of women being yelled at, forced into procedures they don't really want, there is lack of informed consent."
She said the effects on women are felt across society.
"From not being able to bond with the baby, to marriage breakdowns, women having to give up their jobs because it is so debilitating when they've got PTSD, or, or PND, from a combination of things but birth trauma is a contributing factor," she said.
The Australian Medical Association's Gino Pecoraro said trauma could mean different things to different people.
"For some people, it may be that they've had a fourth-degree tear right into their rectum, but the other people they can feel quite traumatised if their delivery didn't go the way they planned," he said.
"It's hard to say whether it's increasing or just that people are more likely to talk about their experiences during pregnancy and labour.
"We've gotten quite good at keeping mothers and babies alive and safe so now I think it's becoming more about their experience."
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[@alissahollis6177]

I haven't been able to bring myself to go have a pap smear in 5 yrs it is just , such a anxiety ridden thought having someone down there again it brings me to my knees and brings all the trauma to the surface for me from my last birth .

[@MstrB0ss]

Alissa Hollis Wow. Totally different experience for my wife. Baby was out in 4 hours. For months she kept telling herself women have been doing this for 10’s of thousands of years without hospitals and to just go with and let her body so it’s thing. Midwifes were super nice and comforting. She kept hopping out the jacuzzi and trying to 💩 even though they told her that feeling is normal. She’d hop in the shower, walk around and they were there for her. Very small private setting, candles, our music, mostly crosses and Vancouver sleep clinic songs. Back plan was they would call an ambulance the second something came up that would require doctor intervention and the hospital was only 1.2 miles away. 3rd girl due dec. this time, we’re going to UCSD Jacobs Medi-Cal center. 3 years old, super high tech, amazing views, beautiful both center with jacuzzi and if needed transfer to labor and delivery is only one floor up. Only bring this up because it is best to have a thorough plan and I hear a lot of younger couples don’t know what to expect and trust the people that are supposed to be experts when it comes to such an important life event. We’ve been blessed. However, there should be mandatory standards across the board because of the terrible treatment people have experienced. The standards for births assisted by midwifes etc. must be equivalent to prepping for a NASA or SpaceX launch. It really is absolutely on the level of patients that need a heart or other organ transplanted to live but are being rejected because they don’t have the money or their paid or government insurance won’t cover it. If a 60 year old man could potentially live another 30 years but won’t receive a transplant then that means the he is having a potential whole 3rd of his life denied. That should be considered a crime. The trauma they and their loved ones experience during and after is reprehensible. Same level these things imo. There needs to be reform... not just a few more regulations from which responsibility that arises from negligence and abuse, can be negated by loopholes and expensive lawyers on retainer.

[@palmo9823]

I'm sorry Alissa, the system is absolutely brutal

[@palmo9823]

Midwife attended homebirth is much cheaper than the oppressive hospital system. Midwives are medical experts who specialise in labour and birth. Obstetricians are doctors who specialise in medical intervention. Midwives can handle every common issue that arises, and many problems are prevented via avoiding the cascade of interventions and the heightened stress that hospitals cause

[@CC-hz1qm]

Support that little ones head!!

[@wildlifegardenssydney7492]

🎯🎯

[@jojozep7820]

Yeah...nah...never met a midwife I've ever disliked. They're ALL amazing. Ward nurses...different experience 🙄

[@sal1665]

Try being single 41 years ago and the Father has abandoned you. Your family don't care either. My friend was bullied and ignored through labor. Baby was ignored too. Don't want to hear it was the times. No excuse. My friend cried every birthday for the first 18 years because she felt so bad for her kid. My friend met her prince when her kid was a few months and he raised the kid as his own. The kid turned out educated and successful. My friend had a hard time mothering too. Also a Nun burst in the room after delivery and demanded my friend put the kid up for adoption. What's really sad about this is my friend was never able to have more kids with her prince. She will always remember this.

[@sezza271]

The more I see of this the more I want to have in home water births with a midwife when I have kids! I feel so sorry for all those women out there that endured this kind of trauma!😢

[@amilie0202]

Expecting my first child and I like the idea of being in first world hospital facility with doctor on site in case anything goes wrong. Birth gotta be traumatic experience in some ways, I don't know if jacuzzi or dark room will help ease it.

[@mirailieva8849]

If birth trauma exists in nature, it must be a very, very, very rare thing. In the garbage human world this is normalized, definitely not normal. It is amazing to me how low people will stoop for the money under the guise of “caring” and “helping.”

[@Egyptianslave3344]

The way of health system and staffs in Australia works are causes exaggerated troubles which could be avoided easily. One patient could consumes 5 patients time because of less experience staff. Then the same staffs complain from work pressure which obviously not true pressure. This patient who might consume that time, might also suffer from life threatening illness. Our experience in Australian hospitals is poor although a big variety of facilities and equipments. My advice is to choose hospital management carefully not depending on favouritism but qualifications, humanity, management skills.

[@aristar9902]

Hey guys, check out the documentary Birth Time World made my a family friend. Its all about this topic and what's being done to improve the occurrence of birth trauma.

[@theotherone818]

Traumatic birth is when you loose your child.......