One in three Australian Mum's experience birth trauma, one in 10 get PTSD | ABC News

Описание: Do you know anyone who has had a traumatic time in childbirth? Chances are you do because up to one in three Australian women have experienced birth trauma and one in 10 women emerge from childbirth with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and according to researchers, the problem is getting worse.

Toowoomba mother Jessica Linwood clutched her husband Daniel's hand as she described the birth of their first child — when she experienced a postpartum haemorrhage — as "terrifying".

"I didn't know if I was going to die or not," she said.

"[A] midwife was pushing on my stomach to contract my uterus back down.

"I had said it hurt and [that] she was hurting me and she told me that I [would] die if she didn't do it.

"Things like that will stick with me forever."

Mr Linwood said it was difficult having no control over what was happening in the moments after his daughter was born and described "mad panic" as medical staff hurried to help his wife.

"She got rushed away. I had a split-second decision to stay with Harper or go with Jess," he said.

Mr Linwood said he was forced to rely on family and friends because there was "no real support" for fathers from professionals.

"I think blokes find it a lot harder to open up to just talk," he said.

The Toowoomba couple said when they fell pregnant with their second child the extent of Ms Linwood's fears were realised and she was treated for PTSD.

"My fear was leaving my daughter without a mother," she said.

"There was no escaping it. I had to give birth again, so I was terrified to go through the same thing for a second time.

"[The second] pregnancy was worse than the first because now I knew that things could go wrong so my anxiety was a lot higher.

"I had a doctor … he had actually said to me [that] he was shocked that I was back to have another one."

Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-3...

Australia's peak lobby group Maternity Consumer Network blamed the problem on 'over medicalisation' in birth.

Director Alecia Staines said what should be considered a sacred time is leaving women from all walks of life with scars.

"All that matters is a healthy baby so it doesn't matter what happens to the mum - I don't believe that for one second - but that's rhetoric women hear" she said.

"Women are coerced, they're bullied, we hear of women being yelled at, forced into procedures they don't really want, there is lack of informed consent."

She said the effects on women are felt across society.

"From not being able to bond with the baby, to marriage breakdowns, women having to give up their jobs because it is so debilitating when they've got PTSD, or, or PND, from a combination of things but birth trauma is a contributing factor," she said.

The Australian Medical Association's Gino Pecoraro said trauma could mean different things to different people.

"For some people, it may be that they've had a fourth-degree tear right into their rectum, but the other people they can feel quite traumatised if their delivery didn't go the way they planned," he said.

"It's hard to say whether it's increasing or just that people are more likely to talk about their experiences during pregnancy and labour.

"We've gotten quite good at keeping mothers and babies alive and safe so now I think it's becoming more about their experience."


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