07/01/2026
Birth trauma, we hear it everywhere. And there's a worry that, whilst it's great, and important, that it's being acknowledged and talked about, we are also becoming so desensitised to it that it's considered normal: 'Childbirth is inherently traumatic/risky/insert preferred fear-inducing word'. This may lead people to think 'of course there should be specialist trauma services in place'. But whilst it's vital that that we do keep giving voice to what is happening, so is the way we do this and the words we choose.
Birth is uncertain, there can be unpredictabilities and CHANCES of negative or adverse things happening. It is also beautiful and raw and a natural process that has seen us survive as a species up to this point. And there should be no such need for the services that we, tragically, now so desperately need.
For the rare events where a true birth emergency occurs, and a person is communicated with and treated respectfully (because we know that someone's experience of an event being traumatic is commonly rooted in the way they were treated, rather than the event itself), any specialist trauma therapy that does arise from this would not warrant an entirely new NHS funded service. A person in this difficult situation would be well supported with well evidenced psychological therapy for PTSD within services that already exist.
The fact that birth trauma teams are so needed is a sad sign of the times in which we we are living. And gratitude for the NHS around such provisions is, in my opinion, a distraction from our rightful, appropriate anger of this situation we find ourselves. It is not birth or women's bodies that are failing, but the treatment of birth itself, and the people at their most vulnerable in this process.
