Traumatic birth may put moms at risk for PTSD
Categories: Newborns, Pregnancy & birth, Medical conditions, In the news
Childbirth is no walk in the park, that's for sure. But for a majority of women, the experience is a positive one. We made need a little time to let the memory of painful contractions fade or for stitches to heal, but the rewards definitely outweigh the pain and stress.But when complications arise, things might go a little differently. When a mother or child's life is threatened or heavy interventions are needed, the trauma of childbirth can linger long past Mom and baby going home. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a new study that found that post-traumatic stress disorder may be far more common in new mothers than previously thought, and some are wondering if screening new moms should be a regular part of post-partum recovery.
Though PTSD is not common in new moms (the new survey put it at about 9%), it's always a good idea to talk to your doctor if you're having strange feelings after giving birth. Part of the problem, of course, is that new motherhood is strange sometimes. You're sleep-deprived, caring for a baby 24 hours a day wondering if they'll ever stop eating or pooping so that you can get a shower, and your life, in general, is turned upside down. Moms may feel reluctant to address their feelings, especially since we're supposed to be awash in maternal happiness and light. (Think Angelina Jolie on the recent cover of People.)
The WSJ has a great chart that compares the symptoms of post-partum depression to PTSD. If you're baby blues don't diminish in the early weeks of new motherhood or if they feel like something more, get your post-pregnancy self to your doctor on the double.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michelle 8-07-2008 @ 4:17PM
Seriously? They needed to do a study? I had PTSD and still suffer from depression stemming from PDD to this day. My traumatic birth happened 4 years and 2 weeks ago. Incidently, my son has PTSD, to a degree, from the birth and ensuing months in NICU and visit after visit to the doctor after discharge.
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ame s 8-07-2008 @ 4:29PM
When my first daughter was born 10 years ago, my epidural failed right as they began the emergency c-section. I had bad nightmares and anxiety attacks for 3 years. I still have the occasional nightmare, and "ghostpain" at the incision site. Nothing like having your tummy cut open and your uterus pulled out while you are screaming and praying for death.
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Melissa 8-07-2008 @ 7:10PM
My God, I hope you sued the hospital! I had my daughter 2 months premature, so they didn't want to do a C-section....it's stories like yours that make me breathe a big sigh of relief! And I hate how everyone tells us we should greatful our children are ok, and stop whining and complaining....did ANY of them even think to say "Hey, are you okay? Maybe you should see a doctor or a counselor or something"....I still have nightmares about her not making it - and she's 2 and a half and thriving! She's a gifted child for God's sake, and has none of the problems that they suspected she would....it doesn't make me want another one, though, because I'm scared that it will happen again (premature labor), and this time he/she won't make it.... short story long lol, PTSD and PDD should never be taken lightly, it does happen in celebrities, too (hello, Brooke Sheilds), they just don't talk about it....you know Angelina had her dark circles airbrushed out, Brad, too....and those little boys looked like they hadn't bathed in days! Whatever....
ame s 8-07-2008 @ 7:30PM
When the doctor realized what was happening, he started swearing at the anesthesiologist. I'd never heard such words from a doctor's mouth!
I was kept on a morphine drip for 2 days. I was home before I was coherent enough to become angry about it, though I did wonder while I was still in the hospital why I had a very nice nurse practically all to myself.
The doctor I really should have sued was the one who misdiagnosed my late-husband's cancer for over a year. She treated him for a pulled muscle. She finally figured out she was wrong when fluid from the tumor collapsed one of his lungs. Alas, she was the wife of one of his co-workers, so he didn't want to take legal action.
Tamyu 8-07-2008 @ 7:22PM
They DO need to do studies, as not everyone suffers PTSD/PPD after experiencing a traumatic birth. The study shows it was higher than previously believed - not that it is surprising that it happens.
I think I had a traumatic birth to top most - 25 weeks, told the baby was going to die and pretty much nothing else, 45 minutes of attempts to put an IV in (this hurt the worst, to be quite honest... And they gave up in the end), woke up when they cut me open, 5 months of NICU limbo with problem after problem...
And I never developed PTSD or depression of any type. In fact, I felt stressed out more by all the hospital`s attempts to protect/comfort me by putting me on sending me to counseling, having a therapist in my room every afternoon, and eventually putting me on suicide watch because I *wasn`t* crying constantly or being overly upset.
Obviously, it`s very important for those who do suffer PTSD/PPD after a traumatic birth to have assistance... But if you aren`t experiencing problems, then it can make you feel worse to have treatment forced on you. I think it can only help everyone to find ways to identify cases with more efficiency.
That said - I do need to find a way to overcome the sheer trauma of the IV insertion, as it is an (THE) issue standing in the way of being able to have another baby. We want another very badly, but the very thought of doing another IV event honestly makes me shake with fear. C-section? Sure, can handle that. NICU - would suck, but can deal with all of that too, probably even more smoothly this time as I`ve done it all before.
But the IV is not something I can bring myself to face.
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Michelle 8-07-2008 @ 9:03PM
I just think they need to stop wasting money on superfluous studies and spend the money on studies that matter.
No, not all women who suffer a traumatic birth are going to suffer from PTSD or PDD, or whatever label you want to slap on it. BUT, we are more prone to it!
I actually had 2 traumatic births, with the 2nd being the one that ended with me suffering from PTSD and PDD, undiagnosed for YEARS. Apparently, failed epidurals must be common, because ame and I have discussed on here previously our lovely c-section experiences. Mine came after several hours of pushing, and I could not have another epi, started with feeling the cut of the scalpel and ended with some sort of hallucination that I was an airplane. (you know, because my arms were strapped out to the side and the table was being rotated). That was the 1st.
The second was being told if they don't take my 25 week, 2 day gestation fetus in the next 30 minutes, we will both die, due to my HELLP while my husband is 45 minutes away getting clothes for what we were told would be a few day hospital stay.
How about we spend this study money on finding ways to detect preeclampsia earlier and other ways to prevent premature birth? How about we invent an epidural that actually works through back labor (what I had with my first child, and pushing was the only thing that relieved those completely off the graph contractions) and that doesn't fail just as the OB is inserting the scalpel into a woman's flesh? How about we spend that money on ways to treat PTSD and PDD in women who experience traumatic deliveries. (How about we spend that money kicking my insurance company's ass because they won't cover the Developmental Specialist for my preemie son, even though they admit the only other one within 100 miles is not Board Cert and I shouldn't be forced to take him to her, even though that is the one they have decided they will cover? And if he ends up diagnosed with Autism I am going to personally knock some of their heads together! arggggggg!)
THAT was my point. I think that a study that says women who experience a traumatic delivery are at a higher risk at developing PTSD and PDD is a waste of money and resources that could go to other, better things. In my opinion, that is a big, fat, DUH!
Tamyu 8-08-2008 @ 3:17AM
I think you`re misunderstanding how these studies are done. It isn`t as if they are investing huge amounts of man power and money into these things. Most of the time, they just talk to several hospitals and ask them to refer new mothers to someone capable of diagnosing PTSD/PPD (Not PDD, that`s Pervasive Developmental Disorder), and then gather the results - or contact doctors who treat PTSD and ask them how many of their patients were new mothers.
Usually, the studies are done by students, with the ultimate goal being *to* get funding for the TREATMENT you are suggesting be given to mothers suffering from PTSD/PPD. If they have proof that it`s more common than previously thought, the chances of funding being tossed in that direction goes up quite a bit. There is a process to these things.
I`m with you on wanting to prevent premature birth... But there ARE ways to detect preeclampsia very early in it`s cycle, and ways to determine if you are at risk. Blame insurance companies for not covering those tests (urine, blood) at every visit, as that`s generally the reason why most doctors don`t do them. In fact, that`s also the reason why prenatal visits aren`t more often. To detect things within a decent timeline, you`d need to have prenatal visits every 2 weeks from around 12 weeks on, with every week starting around 22 weeks.
A question though - why be angry at them if your son ends up diagnosed with autism? It isn`t as if that has anything to do with the level of intervention he receives.
- From the mother of a 14 oz(Severe IUGR) 25 weeker, who was diagnosed with autism.
Michelle 8-08-2008 @ 4:10PM
If you had been engaged in the battle with the insurance company, benefits office and insurance commissioner's office I have that ended with me having to cancel an appointment it took almost a year to obtain, you would understand why I am angry.
It's not so much anger at the possible diagnosis (for instance, I KNOW he has SPD, but have to have an official diagnosis to have it included on his IEP for school that starts Monday. There are red flags pointing at possible autism and his Ped and Neurologist have both made recommendations to see this Specialist). It is more frustration at all we as a family and he as a child have already had to endure and the fact that so much work and waiting went into securing the appointment and 3 days before our appointment, the clinic became out of network. And even though there are, admittedly by all parties, no other viable options, there is no way to get the doctor covered. So, more waiting, while they figure it all out and get back in network, meanwhile, we are back on the waiting list because we are not established patients.
THAT is why my ire is directed at them. Because the longer he goes without diagnosis, the longer he goes without that intervention.
Michelle 8-08-2008 @ 8:30PM
Oh, and forgive me for typing PDD,(over and over) when OBVIOUSLY I know it's PPD as I have suffered from it for so many years.(and I do know the difference between the 2) Usually I am blog surfing while sitting in my son's room trying to either get him to take a nap or go to bed, so it usually is pretty dark in the room and I'm not the world's most profficient typist to begin with.
Again, my point is that some of these "studies" are ridiculous. They are like sensationalized news headlines, meant to draw you in, then never really giving you any useful or meaningful information.
Sabrina 8-08-2008 @ 9:50AM
I have PTSD stemming from what happened 2 days after my son was born, the night he was discharged. He turned blue and needed CPR and was in the hospital for a week. We left with an apnea monitor and no answers as to what happened, would it happen again, would he be ok from having lost oxygen, nothing. And no follow up either. Funny how they were extremely concerned about my husband and his ability to function at his military job, but completely ignored me, the stay-at-home mom with a 18 month old waiting for me at home and no help. I got harassed by the pediatrician when I brought him in for having MORE blue episodes, basically told I was hysterical. And yet they STILL didn't offer me any one to talk to any help or counceling. I was so scared I didn't sleep. I literally went on 2 hours of sleep a night for 3 weeks in a row until I collapsed. I was terified that if I took my eye off him he would die again. The military told my husband I was in unfit mother and suggested he write up a care plan that EXCLUDED me if he was deployed, but never once did they tell him, or me that I should be talking to someone. Never once did anyone admit that maybe this wasn't ok. To this day I have flashbacks about it, I lose sleep, nightmares. I get up 3 and 4 times a night to check the kids and he's 2 years old now and has finally got diagnosed with something treatable. I still use a baby movement monitor in his bedroom and I check it when I put him to sleep and when I come up to bed. I freak if I have to leave him with a sitter, and I've made my husband have "the snip" because I know I could not handle another infant without going even more crazy. I have talked and talked about this until I feel pretty in control of myself, but it is going to take a lot of time to get "back to normal". This isn't how it works for everyone though. I really think that if medical professionals paid a bit more attention to the families affected by stressful happenings, maybe more people would get help. I know that if someone had suggested to me right at the time when it was all happening that I should see someone I would have balked, but as it was more obvious that I was still not ok months down the road I probably would have taken up their offer. Unfortunately I was so wrapped up in my fear and traumatic experience that I didn't realize I really needed to ask for help.
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Carolyn 8-08-2008 @ 11:56AM
Makes sense to me. I was fortunate to have a relatively smooth delivery, but I can definitely see how experiences like you all have described would take a long time to get past. I had ppd for other reasons, and it is certainly not something I'd wish on any new mom.
Carolyn
http://www.momsontheedge.ca
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kate 8-08-2008 @ 5:49PM
i was lucky enough to not have ptsd after what i would call an eventful birth to say the least. my now 18 month old son was due on the 18th...when i still hadnt gone into labor on my own they decided to induce labor on the 29th. they started off with one drug that sent my uterus into "spazism" as they put it but still was not making labor progress. on the second day they tried a different drug to try to move things along. this in combination with breaking my water only got me to 1cm. they decided after 30 some hours of labor that this wasnt going to happen naturally and that they needed to due a c-section. thankfully my epi didnt fail although they ended up giving my two shots of the medication right before the surgery. after the first shot i could still feel them when they did the test. my son was born happy and healty and we were both released form the hospital 3 days later. at my 6 week check up the doctor that did the operation looks at me and tells me that if this had been 100 years ago i would have died in childbirth. (apperantly i happen to be one of these women that have really small pelvic invlet which was unknown until i was having my c-section) now here i am a year and a half later and roughly 7 & 1/2 months pregnant and scheduled to have another c-section. the hardest part of it all for me i think is not being able to hold my child after he was born.
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