Birth trauma: action

[Verso]

To give some context: in April 2005 I had a very traumatic delivery which is still very fresh in my mind despite postnatal counselling and debriefing sessions. Over time, I have also read about or heard many stories of traumatic births and poor postnatal care which have angered and upset me. I really think things have to change.

I have been in contact with the Birth Trauma Association and they are soon going to the Health Select Committee at the House of Commons on this issue (I don't yet have a date but will post it when I do). They have suggested we contact our MPs on the subject of birth trauma and also lobby the media (exact details of what this entails will also follow).

I am not usually an 'activist' type of person, but I feel so very strongly about this - and even five minutes of reading on some of the birth trauma threads on here can make almost anyone want to do something to prevent the appalling treatment some women have experienced being repeated.

If anyone is interested in joining in please post here and I will co-ordinate a response.

Romy7 Sorry you had such a traumatic time at the RAH Paisley? was it in recent times? it just proves that no two experiences are the same i guess ;-(

Just wanted to post a quick update to say I haven't forgotten about this thread but am busy preparing for baby #2 (scheduled c/s next Tuesday) so have been slightly preoccupied!

I'm likely not to post for a while postnatally - but want to pick this up again in the new year if people are still interested.

This is an interesting thread for me. Having had a difficult recovery I have felt driven to try and help prevent others experiencing the same lack of follow up. My trauma was less the birth than a shocking lack of much-needed postnatal care.

I have just approached a well regarded obstetrician here in NZ, and am hoping he can link me up with others who are interested in improving postnatal care. He agrees that there are gaps in the system, and that postnatal care is very lacking in the way the system is run these days.

I agree with those who have said there are far too many things that can lead to birth trauma, so my idea is not to try and prevent it altogether (lets face it a rather impossible task), but to improve the support options available for women who have experienced it, to help them through the other end with as much support as possible

I feel that here we have all the services necessary to deliver what is needed, but the problem is that often those services don't communicate in regards to postnatal care. I have suggested that we try to get funding for a coordinator who is a direct point of contact with women who have given birth in difficult situations and who can link these services so the mother can recover faster and move on without holding on to the trauma.

I am hoping to hear back soon whether anyone is willing to get this moving with me. The ob suggested that he knew a number of midwives who were always "looking for projects on the side". With a bit of luck some other professionals will also be willing to get n board.

I hope this may offer a solution. In my experience enquiries don't really help change anything, and the media can often be in for a witch hunt at any time just for a story. I hope that this is done in a way that can help and I wish you luck.

Mintpurple, I agree about patient complaints, however the patient can be at a disadvantage too: if it wasn't written in the notes, the establishment often simply won't believe it happened though it does not mean it did not. It leaves the perpetrators free to go on and do it again. And this is something that can hugely compound trauma for many women - a failure to acknowledge something that did/didn't happen can add so much more to the healing process.

I'm just adding this thread to my recent list as my taxi is due.

"am also really , really disappointed and sorry to hear that the NCT contributed in some way to a negative experience.. anything that makes women feel like they have failed is just not acceptable."

Sorry - this just makes me furious. How do you know the NCT teacher was responsible for what was said? I don't believe for one minute that an NCT teacher would use this phrase to describe transfer from a birth centre to the labour ward. And from what Mintpurple has said there is no indication that this is the case. Half of what comes out from NCT classes comes from the women themselves - they don't get talked at for two hours - they are left for stretches of time to talk amongst themselves about their expectations and experiences of labour and birth. The teacher doesn't 'police' everything they say.

Verso- how did your c-section go? Really hope it went OK and congratulations!

I was looked after really well, I had fantastic treatment within the realms of what happened to me. Unfortunately the situation I was in meant that my feelings were probably the lowest priority, not losing a second baby was the highest.

I was 31 weeks and my baby was coming fast and feet first. I am on Clexane (Heparin) and I have a back injury which causes PGP in pregnancy, because of those and how fast she was coming there was no time for an epidural and it wouldn't have been safe, so they had to give me a General.

• Birth Trauma for me was about the very scary way things turned from getting me on the drip and giving me steroids to "we need to get this baby out now".
• Having the birth taken from me - how can I be a mother when I wasn't there when she was born?
• Not seeing her for five hours after birth, when I did she was clean, semi dressed (as much as they do when they put a baby in an incubator) and I didn't recognise her as mine. (Yes I did ask for a photo but they left it on the end of her bed rather than sending it to recovery )
• Knowing that that delivery means that I'm not eligible for a VBAC.

You see, it's not all about being treated badly and I don't see anything they could have done differently.

BTW I was misdiagnosed as PND no one has ever said to me I have Birth Trauma. A breastfeeding forum I use was asked if we would take a survey for a university study. I cried whilst I took it because I recognised so much of myself in the questions. At the end it said "If you've been affected by this questionnaire and would like to know more, please click here" and it took you to the BTA. I cried more reading the site because I realised what was wrong with me and it was a relief because I don't feel depressed and never felt right with the PND diagnosis.

I think that is a really important part of any campaign. That it's understood better and not just lumped in with PND. People (I say that because men can be affected too) aren't going to get better if they're told they're depressed and given AD's (often being told they can't breastfeed and for me that would have killed me because it was the only connection I had to my daughter) rather than being counselled through the trauma.

Mintpurple why do people want to be a MW if they don't enjoy delivering babies? Isn't that the point of the job? Why not just be a nurse?

There are some things when it comes to birth that are unavoidable (intervention, CS, Birth Trauma) but they're all things that can happen unnecessarily too. The unnecessary ones are what need cutting and the necessary ones need better support.

I had a quite bad shoulder dystocia happen at my homebirth - bad in the sense that there was a full 6 minute delay between the birth of my son's head and the birth of his body. He was a whisker under 11 lbs. When he was born he was very pale and didn't breath spontaneously - the midwives had to bag and mask him on the bed in front of me. My primary midwife had tried McRoberts, which didn't work, so she let the other midwife have a go. The other midwife managed to get her fingers hooked under my son's armpits and haul him out, falling off the bed in the process. In the mean time an ambulance had been called. Two ambulances arrived quickly, and paramedics came thundering up the stairs - just as my son started breathing. They went away when they realised that it was ok.

Really I look back at that birth and wonder why I WASN'T traumatised by these events. I can only think it was for the following reasons:
a) That I had a strong, trusting relationship with my midwife which we had developed over many months (she was independent) that helped me and my DH cope with what was happening.

b) We knew shoulder dystocia was a risk for me and we had gone through the drill before the birth. I felt about as prepared as it was possible to be for what happened.

c) That both my midwives kept their own fear and panic in check.

d) I had researched outcomes for S/D and knew that although Erbs Palsy is not uncommon after these types of birth, the chance of my baby dieing or being brain damaged in the event of an S/D were remote if the S/D was properly managed, hence I wasn't desperately fearful.

e) The care I had at home in the 24 hours after the birth was very tender and loving and I had many chances to 'debrief'.

f) My baby emerged from the birth very healthy.

If he hadn't - god knows.

Have to say, I know women who've had much less serious S/D's happen in hospital who were traumatised by the birth, despite all ending well. I do think for me the key things were - healthy baby, no physical damage to speak of, loving care around the time of the birth.

My NCT teacher was saying that she met someone who was traumatised because a MW came in and said "Get your knickers off the doctors coming to examine you". Most women would shrug that off, if a baby is coming out of you then you're going to have to lose the knickers! But something in that moment upset that woman and it stayed with her.

I think it demonstrates why some women do and some don't. Maybe some women in my situation would have just been glad to have a baby out safely. Maybe my fears of losing another baby (I forgot to add that to my previous post) added to my trauma from Tink's birth and if it was my first time I would have felt differently. Maybe not seeing her for five hours when I'd lost my first at three was what did it.