Postnatal depression - postnatal distress following birth trauma

Birth trauma, same as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), arises as the result of a frightening or upsetting experience during birth. You may have feared that your own life or that of your baby was at risk at some point during labour. You remain in psychological shock and you are unable to move on emotionally from the event.

Suffering from birth trauma can be a very lonely experience. You may be fear to be judged that "you are still going on about it" and fear that no one wants to know how you are feeling. As a result, you may find yourself trying to minimise the extent of your traumatic experience:

"It's already been several months since the birth so I should be getting over it by now. I'm just not strong enough."

"Plenty of women go had what's happened to me, so why do I feel so awful? This must be just my character."

"I'd been utterly incapable of looking after my baby for months; I feel I am such a terrible mother."

These voices are only a few examples. Your internal dialogues need to be expressed without the fear of being judged. They need to be heard understood and validated in order to process them and move on.

What's happened to you is not normal and you have every right to feel awful. So tell me - what's happened to you?