What help is there for post-birth trauma support?

[Alambil]

My sister had her baby this morning, after being in hospital since Friday.

Whatever could go wrong, went wrong - she got to 9cm dialated then had a crash section; the section was by epidural and half way through, they stopped working to get the baby out, knocked her out and dismissed my mum (her birthing support) out (obviously) - then, she was in theatre for ages and it took 90 mins for my parents and sister's husband to get any news..... then sister's had a blood transfusion (or 2 - not sure)...

Anyway, she's obviously rather traumatised. I have been asked "because I know about that stuff" to find trauma support, so I thought I'd ask here as well as google.

TIA

www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/

Sorry to hear your sister has had such a rough time, poor thing. Is the baby okay?

PTSD as defined does not kick in until six weeks after the event - by that I mean some people will suffer from it and others may not, for whatever reasons, so she may not want to jump the gun with that but support obviously is needed, a good de-brief (her maternity carer should be able to listen or advise who can).

Best wishes.

What an awful situation, I hope they are both doing ok.

There are a couple of really good threads on here that your sister may find helpful, as and when she is ready.

Also, making sure your sister has people she feels she can talk to (like you) that will listen and just be there with a box of tissues, a mug of tea and a hug will definitely help.

Her own GP should be able to help also once she has been discharged by the midwives. Also, my hospital offer a birth discussion appointment (which I've had today following a traumatic birth 11 weeks ago). One of their team have a one-off appointment with you to sit down and go through all your notes, answer any questions and it just helps to go through what happened and when with a clear head. Maybe ask at the hospital if they offer anything like this.

Agree with imaginethat that it will be a number of weeks or so before she might feel ready to do anything.