“I Felt Like I Was Being Abused All Over Again”: How Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Make Sense of the Perinatal Period Through Their Narratives

ABSTRACT

Sequelae following child sexual abuse pervade the lives of adult survivors, significantly impacting on pregnancy and childbirth. Symptoms of this distress are recognized, but meanings for women are less understood. This research aimed to examine the meaning for women themselves of the impact of child sexual abuse on experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. Taking a critical feminist perspective, three open-ended interviews with three survivors enabled women’s narratives of pregnancy and childbirth to be heard, explored the structure of these narratives, including how experiences were connected, and identified key themes and how selves and others were positioned. Women themselves contributed to the analysis of their own narratives. The different struggles of each woman occurred within three domains of experience: identity, embodiment, and parenting. They were underpinned by a fluctuation between empowerment and disempowerment. These findings, although based on detailed analysis of the experiences of only three women, dovetail with, integrate, and extend the existent literature, offering a framework for understanding the complexity of meaning making for women. Further research might develop this. The framework may facilitate clinicians’ understandings of what it is like for some women having children who have experienced child sexual abuse.

KEYWORDS:

• Childbirth
• child sexual abuse
• narrative analysis
• parenting
• perinatal
• pregnancy
• trauma
• women

Acknowledgments

No funding was provided for this research and it was completed as part of the lead authors doctorate in clinical psychology. The authors would like to acknowledge their gratitude to the participants who shared their personal experiences and took part in the research project.

Disclosure of interest

Gilli Watson is employed by Devon Partnership NHS Trust in the adult mental health psychology service, one of the services from which participants were recruited. Jane Byrne and Cordet Smart declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jane Byrne

Jane Byrne is a Clinical Psychologist working within the NHS.

Cordet Smart

Cordet Smart is a research tutor and lecturer at Plymouth University and was a supervisor for this research.

Gilli Watson

Gilli Watson is Consultant Clinical Psychologist working in adult mental health within Devon Partnership NHS Trust and was a supervisor for this research.