Chidbirth experience and its impact on postnatal wellbeing

It is well documented that women having a difficult or emergency delivery have a higher chance of developing postnatal dpression. Having worked in this field, what strikes me is that births that women perceive as traumatic for them can often be described as straightforward in their patient records. And once a live birth is achieved, the experience of the woman is quickly forgotten by everyone but the woman herself. There needs to be more recognition in the postnatal period for the enormity of what the women have been through - and for what it means for them individually.

I remember after the birth of my first baby being asked by the midwife, who came to see me post natally, if it had been a "straight forward" birth. I replied no but when I explained why I thought it wasn't (long labour, lots of drugs needed, baby stopping breathing after birth and need to be suctioned, large post natal blood loss resulting in anaemia) the midwife laughed and said "yes, your birth experience was straight forward". If I had been listened to and empathised with and assured that these things were unfortunate "one offs" and didn't mean that subsequent births would be the same then I would have felt a lot happier and a lot more supported. I had post natal depression after this birth for the first 3 months which really affected mine and my husbands life and I am sure that it was related to the birth trauma.

A friend of mine recently had her first baby. She suffered a very long and traumatic labour/birth and although the outcome was a positive one (a healthy baby girl) she was left thoroughly traumatised by the whole experience and therefore adamant that she was never going to have another baby. However, 6 months later she was able to meet with one of the midwives and to go through exactly what had happened and why. My friend found this to be very therapeutic, for her it put closure to a bad experience and she is now confident enough to try for another baby as she understands that her next labour could be a much more positive experience.

I tried to breastfeed my first baby but after the ceasarean it was really hard especially in the hospital. I put her on the bottle after two weeks because I didn't have enough milk. I felt bad about it and would have been happier if I could feed her.

I had trouble breastfeeding at first but the home visit midwives came every day to help. It was really good and next time I will come straight home after the birth, so I can get some sleep.

i dont know where to start! as i have mentioned in a previous post, cats that are giving birth to their litters have more respect and are treated more decently than myself and my baby postnatally. after my stay at the hospital (one day! i just wanted to get out of there as quick as possible) i wrote a letter of complaint naming some nurses who were abusive to me mentally emotionally and physically. i received many calls of concern from the manager of nursing and midwifry at the hospital and at the end a letter of apology. i had a healthy and happy pregnancy but postnatally i did not. i have since been scared mentally and physically and do not even want to think of adding to my family in the future. i think nurses/midwives on the wards need to be a bit more compassionate to their patients regardless of whether theyre a new parent or not, their method of childbirth, their views on childbirth, raising children and breastfeeding.

I think there are much more selfish reasons for women electing ceasrean, to maintain the integrity of their vagina for vanity and sexual reasons.

After my second daughter's unexpected birth via ceasarean section, it took nearly 3 1/2 hrs for us to finally meet, I had unexplained bleeding, they had to find it before they stitched me up. So they knocked me out to do this as it was so painful. The poor kid had to wait and wait for her mum to give her the first feed and feel reasured. I was so groggy and sore, the pain so much worse than the vaginal birth of my 1st daughter. Why would anyone want to go through that willingly?

Hi

I have PTSD following a bad emergency c-section birth experience in a South East Melbourne Public Hospital - It was Terrible including having hallucinations to the medication that they gave me- It is now 3 years later I am Only 80% better, my marriage is ruined as I can't have any kind of sexual relationship with my husband. I have lost all confidence in myself and stay close to home. My beautiful daughter suffers due to my mood swings and I feel that I cant be the mother that I wanted to be, she has also been robbed of having a sibling as I am too terrified to go have another. I Have found that there is NO HELP OR SUPPORT in Melbourne at all and feel that someone should be accountable for the treatment or non treatment that I was given as it has change me as a person. I was a teacher prior to having my daughter,I had a perfect blissful pregnancy - no morning sickness - After 4 days of what they called "spirius Labour with contractions every 3 minutes I went to my GP who wrote a letter to the hospital asking them to induce -They would NOT "I DON'T WANT A LAW SUIT is what the DR. Said To Me, finally a midwife appeared and got things started, my daughters heart rate dropped and she had merconium (emergency C-Section) and was recussitated at birth then kept in a special care nursery. The nurses asked me if I was a drug addict as I was hallucinating on the drugs they were giving me for pain OXO Contin I think. I told them I was not coping with the medication and could not take their instructions but they continued to give me the drugs. i did receive an apology for that once they checked that I was NOT A Drug Addict..... I have tried therapy, anti depressants and walking - It is still there - there seems to be no one who specialises in this area. I asked for the birth notes to give to a therapist and under existing illnesses it stated that I had a MENTAL ILLNESS I don't know where that came from as the only illness I had was Asthma....

Sharon