Insight explores the impacts of birth trauma and what can be done to ensure better outcomes for women and their families. Giving Birth Better, Tuesday, April 20 at 8:30pm on SBS and on
When Gabriela Church went into early labour at 28 weeks, she was assured everything was fine.
“I still remember sitting on my hospital bed, the obstetrician looked me in the eye [and said], ‘There's zero chances of your baby being born in the next two weeks at least, go home… Life goes back to normal, you're fine'.”
Mrs Church went home and continued planning her baby shower. The next morning, she was shocked to see blood when she went to the toilet.
Within a couple of days, her first child was born, just shy of three months early.
“Physically it wasn't (traumatic)… Louis weighed 1.279 kilos, so it was pretty straightforward. I had to push twice, and he was out,” Mrs Church told SBS Insight.
Psychologically, however, the impacts of Louis’ premature birth run deep. Mrs Church says it’s changed her as a person, affecting every aspect of her life - from her career, to friendships, to motherhood.
“I am a different mum because of it and the first year of motherhood was harder than it should have been. My son couldn't have been born in a better place, he had a state-of-the-art facility, he had access to the best doctors, the best professionals. But I was a ghost,” she said.
Gabriela Church is not alone. One in three Australian women report their birth experience as traumatic, due to physical injury sustained during birth, and/or psychological effects from the birth process.
Clinical psychologist, Dr Rosanna Pajak, said how a woman feels during, and immediately after childbirth can have lasting effects on parenthood, including a mother’s bond with her child.
“It's a woman's entry into motherhood and the experience stays with women and forms the basis of that adjustment and that transition. So, if there are feelings of grief, sadness, failure, shame, even feeling very confused, dis-empowered, unheard, violated, all of this … really impacts postnatal mental health,” Dr Pajak told Insight.
It took Gabriela Church and her husband three years to feel ready to start trying for another baby. Even then, it didn’t happen easily.
“I couldn't look at pregnant women for the whole first year after giving birth. I felt rage when I saw women who were fully pregnant”, Mrs Church said.
“I felt like that was taken away from me.”
Couples who have experienced birth trauma before “almost universally” struggle with the prospect of giving birth to another child, according to Dr Pajak. But, she added, working through that previous experience can also be empowering when preparing for a subsequent pregnancy and birth.
“When you've been through a distressing birth, there can be a sense of going into another experience a hell of a lot more informed and aware with information that you simply couldn't have had the first time around,” Dr Pajak told Insight. “There is an opportunity to really draw on what you know now that you didn't know before.”
Ellie was born full term, weighing 3.060kg. Source: Insight
She did a hypnobirthing course which she says gave her the information and confidence to question health professionals’ decision-making during her pregnancy and avoid major interventions for the birth.
“I was 39 weeks pregnant when I went for a regular check-up and I received the whole talk about ‘be prepared for an induction’. That was the first opportunity for me to go ‘Hey, is this really necessary? Is there a medical reason for it? What are my options?’”
After establishing there was no medical reason to induce, Gabriela Church went into labour naturally a few days later. Her baby girl, Ellie was born at full term, a healthy 3.06 kg.
“I was calm, and I trusted my body. I just thought about my baby freely moving out of my body and I know that sounds very fluffy but our bodies and our mind are really powerful and really strong and I actually focused on my muscles and I knew which muscles to think about because I was taught that in the birthing course.“
Gabriela Church’s second birth experience could not have been more different from her first. While Louis was taken away immediately for assessment after he was born, Mrs Church was able to hold and feed Ellie straight away. She didn’t let her go for two hours.
“It was beautiful,” she smiled.
