Birth Trauma Awareness Week

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Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020
6-12^th September

The 2020 theme for Birth Trauma Awareness Week is

Journeys

In Australia, 1 in 3 women identify their births as traumatic and 1 in 4 first-time mothers suffer major physical damage such a perineal tears and pelvic floor muscle trauma. These experiences often leave a long-lasting impact on a woman’s physical and mental health, their ability to bond with their baby and their relationships with their partners, family, friends and the wider community.

Our individual responses to birth can be extremely complex, regardless of whether it was a vaginal birth, vaginal birth with intervention, emergency cesarean or planned cesarean. Trauma is very personal, and unique. Some women find certain interventions more difficult to deal with than others. Some might experience things that an onlooker might not consider to be traumatic.

These feelings can play a role in the development of postnatal anxiety, depression or other stress-related disorders. What we have discovered, is that the response of loved ones and supporting healthcare professionals plays a fundamental role across 3 key factors;

Trauma Identification
Trauma Recognition
Trauma Management.

Without these 3 factors being addressed/identified, the damage to a women’s physical and mental health can be catastrophic, and if left unidentified women can be left feeling frightened, unsafe and/or unheard, as well as potentially being physically damaged. A woman’s partner or those that played a pivotal role in the birthing process may also experience birth trauma. Your feelings about your birth are real and should be acknowledged.

ABTA wants women and their families to know that they aren’t alone and that there is help and support available. We are deeply honoured to the women who are brave enough to share their stories with us each year, in the hope that they could help others. We encourage each and every person impacted by a trauma from the birth experience to raise their voices because #yourstorymatters and we encourgae you to #starttheconversation so that more can be done to better prevent, diagnose and treat birth trauma.

Sign up for our newsletter and join us on social media to be kept up to date with activities and events for this year’s awareness week.

We would love for you to get involved.

For support please join our private Facebook group or you can live chat with an ABTA Peer Mentor online.