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What is birth trauma?

Birth trauma refers to the emotional and psychological distress experienced during or after childbirth. Factors that contribute to birth trauma can include:

  • Complications; prolonged labour, emergency interventions, physical injuries, inadequate pain relief
  • Poor care and communication; lack of information, feeling unheard or dismissed, negative interactions with staff
  • Birth disappointment; when the reality of your birth experience does not match with what you hoped or expected it to be.
 
Approximately 1 in 3 women report their birth as traumatic. However, it’s important to recognise that what one person finds traumatic, another may not. A traumatic birth isn’t just about what happened medically during labour, it’s about the individual’s experience of these events and the emotional impact they have had.
 
Typically, birth trauma happens when some aspect has left you feeling frightened, powerless, violated or ignored. These complex feelings can lead to negative thoughts, low mood, guilt and often self-blame. They can impact on your capacity to bond with your baby, your relationship with your partner and your own relationship to motherhood.
How I can help you

Motherhood is an enormous transition in itself, and a traumatic or difficult birth can make an already life changing experience feel even harder. Often new mothers feel they have failed at motherhood before they have even begun.

Birth trauma therapy offers a safe and compassionate space for you to be fully heard, to share your birth experience and help you make sense of what happened.

Working at a pace that feels comfortable for you, we will pay close attention to your bodily responses and the feelings that emerge when talking about your experience. Expressing these feelings will help us to identify specific themes to explore together. I will then use psychological interventions to help you process your experience. I hope by the end, you will better understand your birth, resolve any potential self blame and reclaim the narrative.

Session information

I offer individual therapy sessions with mothers and birthing people, as well partners if requested. We can meet as many times as you feel is necessary, some people find even just one session is enough.

I recommend that birth reflections take place no earlier than 4 weeks after the birth. However, you can attend a session several years after the birth has taken place. Indeed many women have found these sessions particularly helpful when pregnant or considering conceiving for a second time.

I fully appreciate looking after a young baby can be all consuming, so the sessions can take place online, in person in your home, or at my consulting room. Babes in arms can attend if necessary.

I also offer a 3 week group workshop. Participants have found that connecting with others, sharing experiences and finding a community can be extremely healing. Please get in touch to find out when the next workshop will be running.

Testimonials

“A really supportive and intimate environment was created by Rhiannon where we all felt safe to talk about our experiences and begin to shift some of those difficult feelings.  It worked really well having it over three sessions as it meant there was time to discuss the trauma, experience the feelings, and begin to move through them and reflect.”
“Having the space just to sit and share my experience with other mums was priceless. It allowed me the opportunity to dig a little deeper into why I was feeling certain things and, most importantly, to start to understand and process it all."
“The workshop was such a moving, restorative and thought-provoking way to start processing the trauma of my birth experience.  I am so grateful for having the opportunity to address the feelings related to my experience."
“Birth can be one of the most traumatic experiences and there is almost no support for women either when it happens or later.  Rhiannon recognised this and offered an affordable way to begin my healing journey.  I don't feel I am carrying that grief in the way I was, and I will always be incredibly grateful for this opportunity.”
“This group offered a community for women to authentically share their experiences and hold space for each other. I truly believe this group has the power to support mums, wherever they may be on their parenthood journey, and to reassure them they're stronger and more capable than their brains would have them believe!”
Further Resources
Make Birth Better
www.makebirthbetter.org
Birth Trauma Association
www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk 
AIMS
https://www.aims.org.uk/
Birth Rights
https://birthrights.org.uk
Fees

My fee for individual sessions is £80. Each session lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The group workshops take place over 3 consecutive weeks, and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. The fee is £25 per session. 

Please specify if you’re interested in participating in a workshop or individual sessions when contacting me.

I’m available for a free 15 minute exploratory conversation if you have any  questions you would like answering.