Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following childbirth is likely to be much more common than statistics would indicate. All too often, new mothers are simply told they have postnatal depression, postnatal anxiety or postnatal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) without a full examination of the causes of their symptoms.
As it stands, data shows that one in three women rate their experience of childbirth as traumatic, but how do we begin the process of even diagnosing, documenting and measuring PTSD in mothers who have experienced some form of trauma during the birth of their child?
Fortunately, a new study by City, University of London and Catholic University of Croatia has gone some way to providing answers to these questions. It surveyed more than 600 first-time mothers in Croatia, all of whom had given birth within a year of participating, and utilised something called the City Birth Trauma Scale.
The Scale applies similar diagnostic criteria for PTSD to those contained within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) – the international standard for the classification of mental disorders. By applying the scale, the researchers found that as many as four in 100 women develop PTSD after childbirth. This number nears two in ten for more vulnerable mothers – i.e. those who have had difficult pregnancies, have had an unplanned c-section or report a history of sexual abuse.
The study is important because it is one of the first to use PTSD diagnostic criteria specifically for women who have just experienced childbirth. It was led by Susan Ayers, Professor of Child and Maternal Health at City, University of London.
Women are at risk of childbirth PTSD if they have experienced the following:
There is some stigma attached to post-birth PTSD as there is sometimes a misperception that birth is a natural event and cannot therefore be that traumatic. There is also a further misperception that if a mother has a healthy baby, she should simply be happy.
New mothers who experience any of the following may be experiencing some level of PTSD:
Talk to your GP if you are experiencing any of the above symptoms following childbirth. Treatments may range from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) or, in some cases, medication.