Ask Dr Miriam

Q

The birth of my first baby took a long time and in the end I had a forceps delivery and lost a lot of blood. My daughter had a low Apgar score. I kept replaying the birth in my head and became quite anxious and depressed. I’m pregnant again and I hope it won’t happen a second time.

A

I do sympathise with you. It’s easy to keep reimagining your birth trauma and it could lead to PTSD with anxiety and depression.

I hope that your baby recovered quickly from the birth and I’m sure it was easy to fall into the trap of believing you’d failed your daughter, but of course you hadn’t. Coping alone is very difficult and I hope you were able to get help from your family but also from your midwife, health visitor and your GP. Getting specialist help can be frustrating because waiting lists can be around 12 months. I suggest for your second birth you talk to your obstetrician about an elective caesarean section to prevent more physical and emotional upset.