The dark secret of birth that nobody talks about

Millions of women worldwide suffer from PTSD right before or after birth.

STSD is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening, or disturbing events. This condition was first recognised after World War I when PTSD soldiers were sick of the horrors and incomprehensible fears they witnessed during the battle. Despite PTSD is mainly related to war, women are affected by this syndrome because of birth.

Traumatic women can feel fear, power, or horror in their living experience and suffer from frightening and bad memories about birth. They feel grief, anxiety, or experience panic attacks in situations that remember the event. This even includes conversations about birth”, Patrick O'Brien, a mental - health expert at University Hospital and a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Great Britain, writes the BBC.

Despite everything, P TSD after birth was officially recognized only in the 1990s when the American Psychiatry Association changed the description of what constitutes a traumatic event. The Society initially considered that the PTSD was “something beyond the ordinary human experience”, but then changed the definition to include an event in which a person “suffered either a serious physical threat or damage to himself or others and for which the person responded with a sense of fear, inadequacy or horror “.

In fact, this implies that prior to the new definition of the PTSD, birth was considered a normal situation and was not considered traumatic, despite possible harm that could change the lives of mothers and children and sometimes even cause death.

According to the World Health Organization, about 803 women each year have complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.

There is little official record of how many women suffer from PTSD after birth and because of the constant ignorance of their condition, it is hard to estimate how common the situation is. Some studies have attempted to determine a 4 percent birth rate.

A 2003 study suggests that a third of mothers experienced traumatic births because of the use of different instruments during complicated births, and they all developed PTSD.

If some 130 million children worldwide are known to be born each year, it means that an extraordinary number of women need to deal with the disorder and that the problem is far from known.

STSD after birth may not only be a problem for mothers, but some studies have found evidence that fathers present at birth may suffer from it.

Despite accurate figures, those who go through these experiences can have a lasting impact on their lives, and symptoms manifest themselves in many different ways.

“I have a vivid birth view”, says Leonnie Downes, a mother from Lancashire, Great Britain, who suffered from PTSD after feeling a great fear of developing the serps during childbirth.

Lucy Webber, a woman who suffers from PTSD after the birth of her son in 2016, says she developed obsessive behavior and became very upset.

We can't let our child get out of sight, nor let anyone touch him, it says. “continuing to follow the thought of bad things that could happen to all my loved ones.”

Not all women who have a difficult birth have developed P TSD after birth. According to Elizabeth Ford of Queen Mary University in London and Susan Ayers of Sussex University, this has much to do with perception of what they have experienced. The most common reason for such a disorder is the lack of control during childbirth or because of poor care and poor support during childbirth.

This is confirmed by stories of women who developed P TSD after birth. One of them said that her staff did not care when giving birth to a child, Mom did not have any sensitivity to him because of a child's complicated birth. She just saw that the staff took her son and sent him to re-animation without addressing her for hours and giving him no information about the child.

Emma Svanberg, licensed clinic psychologist who was involved in the “campaign, do good work”, says this is a common topic women discuss.

“The lack of social kindness and compassion is the most frequent reason for PTSD after birth”, she says.

Jennifer Patterson of the University of Napier in Edinburgh suggests that midwives are often aware of the problem and know that birth can be traumatic for women, but they are busy with other tasks that cannot provide support and information to help future mothers.

That is why it is possible for the PTSD to develop into a certain number of cases even before birth.

Cause of PTSD is in the brain. The memories are usually stored in the hippocampus of the brain. But if the experience is traumatic, the mind is going to war and the amigdal is involved in a part of the brain associated with fear. Therefore, memories are stored in this part of the brain rather than stored in a safe place.

Half the women with mental health problems are thought to be safe. However, there is help for women struggling with PTSD after birth, provided such assistance is available to them.

It is treated by taking medication or cognitive behavioral therapy that helps to change thinking and behavior. A desensibilization method can also be used.

However, many are convinced that there will be changes in a training of midwives and obstetrics, and that a better attitude of staff towards parents will significantly reduce PTSD. Small changes, such as normal conversation and less professional conditions, make a big difference.