Birth Trauma Therapy in Palm Desert

Birth Trauma Therapy in Palm Desert

You knew that birth is impossible to fully prepare for and you felt ready enough for what it might look like. You knew there would be deviations from what you wrote in your birth plan but felt confident in your providers and in the supports you chose to have present with you. What you weren’t totally prepared for were the feelings you have been left with after your birth. You find yourself feeling angry that you weren’t respected in the birthing room, that you weren’t communicated with by those around you who you entrusted to protect you, that you have a healthy baby but are left with all of these aftershocks from your birth.

You are Reliving your Birth on a Daily Basis

You find yourself replaying the birth over and over to yourself, unable to stop the movie that is replaying without your consent or control. You feel angry, sad, lonely, and disappointed in the way your birth unfolded. You notice you are having a hard time connecting with your baby because baby brings up immediate memories of your birth and the feelings are unpleasant and overwhelming. You are going through the motions of cuddling and caring for your baby, but inside you feel numb and detached.

You Don’t Recognize Yourself

You were excited to welcome this baby into the world and now you find yourself crying, isolating from those around you and feeling detached from your baby. You may have feelings of rage or anger towards your partner or other supports who were present in your birthing room with you…why didn’t they intervene? Why didn’t they protect me?

Was your Birth Traumatic?

Did you feel you were not treated respectfully or spoken to before your body was moved or maneuvered in the birthing room? Were there complications that involved providers speaking to each other instead of to you as you were trying to figure out what was going on? Were you afraid that your life or the life of your baby were at risk? Were you left feeling afraid or panicked in the delivery room?

You Are Ready to Start Feeling Better

If you recognize yourself in the above paragraphs, you may have experienced a traumatic birth event that is continuing to be present in your current daily life. For many women, childbirth itself is a trauma that impacts her ability to live life the way she did before birth, affects bonding with her infant and sometimes even the way she is able to feed her baby.

Women who experience a medical event during pregnancy or delivery, as well as women who have a baby who experiences a medical event can develop a condition called postpartum post traumatic stress disorder and can be treated with supportive therapy. You do not have to suffer alone, there is help and treatment available to you.

As a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist in Palm Desert, I work with women just like you who have experienced a traumatic childbirth event due to their own experience or that of their infant.

Contact me today or call me at 805-930-9355. Let’s get started. You do not have to suffer alone and you can heal from this traumatic event.