Any woman who’s given birth knows the myth of the perfect childbirth experience, passed down from generation to generation. But for many women, giving birth turns out to be something other than the idyllic experience celebrated in birth mythology.
Birth professionals estimate that at least 45 percent of reported births result in some degree of birth trauma to the mother, a blow to the system that, left unrecognized, can lead to problems with bonding with the baby, problems with partners and mental health complications over time.
Christie Sheffer Davis, a Westsider and principal provider at Colorado Springs’ Perinatal Trauma Center, thinks an even higher percentage of women have experienced birth trauma that has gone unrecognized.
“I’ve found that for many women, trauma has to do not just with the dramatic experience of having an emergency C-section or a complicated birth, but with being naked in a busy room full of clothed people and not being seen or heard,” Davis said.
PEOPLE GET TO UNDERSTAND they’re not alone in it.
In the process of birth, decisions often are being taken away from the birth mother who’s losing her voice little by little.
“And she’s having contractions the whole time,” Davis said. “It all adds up.”
A certified professional midwife who has attended births for more than 20 years, Davis began training in trauma care and became a certified trauma professional after retiring from a stressful 24/7 call schedule. She now offers trauma processing to birth mothers as well as debriefing with birth professionals who experience trauma secondhand when a birth is life-threatening or even fatal.
“My ideal client is someone who’s had a difficult delivery, that we can work together on having a satisfying next birth,” Davis said.
As a midwife, she could guarantee open communication and caring before and during the birth experience, but complications arise that change a birth mother’s plan and often end with a less than satisfying experience. Through understanding birth trauma and processing it, a previously traumatized birth mother can visualize and experience a birth in which she can maintain regulation, even if complications arise.
Birth trauma can result from poor pain control, lengthy or very painful labor, lack of information or explanation, lack of privacy and dignity, fear for the mother’s or baby’s life, premature birth and a host of other experiences.
And it’s not uncommon, especially in the United States. According to the American Psychiatric Association, the U.S. “remains an outlier in the developed world, with some of the poorest maternal and infant health outcomes.”
Black women are disproportionately impacted by maternal health crises, “experiencing high rates of birth trauma and obstetric injury and a higher risk of developing postpartum depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders than other women, and also (are) more likely to go underdiagnosed for birth-related mental health conditions … and birth-related PTSD.”
Davis is training to be a somatic experiencing professional, working with clients to notice and observe what happens in the body as a trauma story unfolds, a practice that dovetails nicely with her birth trauma work.
“Trauma isn’t necessarily in the difficult event but in never processing the experience in the body,” she said. In somatic experiencing sessions, “We’re looking for where activation happens in the body.”
Davis has also begun traveling around the country and presenting seminars to midwives as a compassion fatigue specialist, addressing burnout among birth professionals, hoping that they will learn to deal with secondary trauma before coming to a crisis point.
“People get to understand they’re not alone in it,” she said. “One of the things I recommend is that they form a peer group that’s not about peer review but about having trauma buddies to share stories with.”
With practical tools, birth mothers and midwives alike can maintain a state of emotional regulation in the face of trauma, healing old wounds and enhancing future birth experiences.
“Time helps so much, but giving birth is such an important event in our lives that it’s really important to understand and work through the trauma,” Davis said.
Learn more at www.perinataltraumacenter.com.