Nearly one fifth of birthing humans experience childbirth as traumatic.
Whenever a percentage this high is attributed to any aspect of the parenting journey, I often talk about it in the context of normalization. Rates of miscarriage – up to 20% – let’s normalize miscarriage. Rates of perinatal anxiety/depression – 1 in 5 – let’s normalize maternal mental health disorders. In these contexts, normalization reflects open discussion and calls for increasing access to support these normal, difficult and health impacting, parts of life.
But, in the case of birth trauma – 19% – we cannot and SHOULD NOT normalize it. And yet, in our society, this is exactly what we do.
Well, maybe “normalize” isn’t the right word for what happens in cases of traumatic birth experiences. How about “dismiss”? Or “ignore”? Or “minimize”?
Major risk factors for those who might experience birth as traumatic include expected factors, like mental health history and birth complications. But risk factors also include internal sense of control and poor Quality of Provider Interactions (a metric capturing how people feel about the medical care they received during labor and birth). Given how those feelings are two MAJOR RISK FACTORS, it is not a stretch to expect that a good chunk of the birth trauma percentage may be completely avoidable. Unnecessary stress. A systemic issue. This projection is further validated by research demonstrating that continuous support during labor+birth significantly improves perceived control AND significantly decreases fear of birth and birth trauma. Compassionate, supportive care as a valuable intervention.
In her book, Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section, author, journalist, and social scientist, Dr. Rachel Somerstein, wrote a beautiful, haunting, poignant, brilliant evaluation of cesarean birth in this country and the way we (mis)handle birth trauma. Viewed through the lens of her own experience and the psychological scars it left behind, alongside the historical, medical, and societal context for the surgery.
Conversations with Rachel dig further into women’s pain dismissal, identify the ways maternal stressors during birth interconnect and follow far beyond the first year postpartum, and have further fueled my fury around the risk:risk analysis that over-prioritizes babies at the expense of mothers’ health.
I don’t have audio to share for this discussion so for my full conversation with Rachel, you will have to visit the Substack post – here is the link — with that said, I have recorded (in my own voice) a few favorite points from our discussion.
Additional links:
Tee-up post about skewed risk:risk analysis along the journey to and through parenting — The ignored health risk of motherhood
Previous post on women’s pain dismissal
Musings on the body-mind-body connection
Last conversation with Dr. Devika Bhushan on over-prioritization of baby in the context of breastfeeding (vs sleep protection) — AUDIO + Substack post
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