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About 30,000 women a year, according to the most recent research, experience birth trauma in the UK. Instead of being joyful and happy, the experience of giving birth has been frightening. Perhaps the baby’s heartrate dipped, leading to an emergency caesarean section. Maybe you or your baby suffered injuries as the result of the birth. Or maybe you felt that you weren’t well looked after in labour, or you weren’t told what to expect.

If something like this has happened to you, you might have felt scared that you or the baby were going to die. As with any other traumatic experience – a car accident, or a sexual assault, or seeing a bomb explode – a traumatic birth can lead to symptoms of PTSD: flashbacks, a sense of heightened anxiety, constantly feeling on the alert, avoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma.

Birth trauma means that it can be difficult to bond with your baby. You may find your symptoms are triggered by reminders of the birth: pregnant women, other babies, programmes such as One Born Every Minute.

Witnessing someone else’s trauma can also be traumatic, so partners can experience PTSD too.

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