Just another ordinary bad birth? A narrative analysis of first time mothers' traumatic birth experiences

ABSTRACT

A difficult birth experience can have long lasting psychological effects on both mother and baby and this study details four in-depth accounts of first time mothers who described their birth experience as traumatizing. Narrative analysis was used to record discrepancies between the ideal and the real and produced narrative accounts that highlighted how these mothers felt invisible and dismissed in a medical culture of engineering obstetrics. Participants also detailed how their birth experience could be improved and this is set in context alongside current recommendations in maternal health care and the complexities of delivering such care in UK health settings.

Notes

1. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) now classes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as a ‘Trauma and Stress Related Disorder’ linked to an external event, rather than an anxiety disorder.

2. Although none of our research participants experienced death of the neonate, we document this literature as of significance in understanding associated trauma and/or the emergence of PTSD.

3. We note the number of participants invited and the number unwilling to be interviewed on this topic.