What is birth trauma?

There are many reasons birth can be traumatic. You may have needed an unexpected caesarean or forceps delivery, have lost more blood than expected or there may have been concerns about your baby. The birth may have been fast and ‘normal’ but you may have found this scary and painful. You may have felt alone and confused about what was happening at times.

Birth trauma is a common term but perinatal trauma refers to a traumatic event that happens in the perinatal period (pregnancy and up to a year following your birth). You may receive some difficult news, have a challenging breastfeeding experience, your baby may require a SCBU/ NICU stay or you may find the first few weeks of parenting extremely exhausting.

Birth partners can also suffer trauma from what they experience and the lack of control they can feel in trying to be there for their partners and concern for their baby.

Symptoms can be feeling on edge, nightmares, avoiding thinking or talking about your experience or needing to talk about it a lot, anxiety, anger and disrupted sleep to name a few.

What is 3 step rewind?

Traumatic Birth Recovery (TBR) 3 step rewind allows you to stand down your natural response to trauma and remove the emotional load that comes with a traumatic event. You will still remember the event but it will alleviate the physical and psychological symptoms that affect your day to day life.

TBR 3 step rewind is not an alternative to seeking medical help or taking medication for your mental health. Both can be done alongside.

The process involves 3 stages.

Hearing your story (should you want to tell it) and understanding the changes you would like to experience with the symptoms lifted

Deep relaxation, remembering the event in a specific way whilst feeling safe and secure

Imaging coping in the future and responding differently.

Further websites:

What is the 3 Step Programme? – Traumatic Birth Recovery

Home – Birth Trauma Association

Jane Bamford