WHEN EVERYTHING IS NOT ALRIGHT

A very small percentage of births go catastrophically wrong. You may have been in the very unfortunate situation that you skated close to the life-or-death edge during your baby’s delivery. Any situation in which you or your baby were very sick during or after the birth qualifies. Maybe you had uncontrolled postpartum bleeding (a haemorrhage) or some misadventure during surgery. Perhaps your baby was in serious distress or was born with brain damage or a physical disability, or very prematurely – or, tragically, you miscarried or your baby was stillborn. This kind of birth trauma is severe, and more severe psychological aftereffects are to be expected.

“If you have flashbacks to the trauma all the time, if you have intrusive thoughts, if you’re constantly feeling fearful, anxious or angry, if you can’t sleep, if you overidentify with others’ bad birth stories, and if you demonstrate an avoidance of the trigger – such as not having sex (in case it leads to pregnancy) or avoiding hospitals and doctors even when you should go, you could be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder,” says counselling psychologist Karin Steyn. Therapy is more than useful – more like essential – in such a case. Seek help, so you can start feeling better. “Your fight-or-flight response is activated if you suffer from PTSD. And we are not meant to be in that state the whole time!” says Karin. She adds that excellent therapeutic techniques exist for the treatment of PTSD, such as eye movement desensitisation and reprogramming, forms of cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnosis and regression, and others, while new techniques, such as brain wave recursive therapy are evolving fast – and with excellent results.