Birth Trauma Therapy in Santa Rosa, CA
Support for birthing people whose experience did not go as planned
Birth trauma can happen to anyone. It isn't limited to dramatic emergencies or to people with a history of trauma. It can follow a birth that medical staff considered routine, and it can follow a birth that ended with a healthy baby in your arms.
You may have gone in to the hospital or your homebirth with a vision of how it would feel, where it would go, and then found your self on a road you couldn’t turn back from, with interventions, procedures no one fully explained, or decisions made quickly around you rather than with you. Afterward, many people feel that their birth experience was taken from them.
Many also carry guilt, a sense that they didn't try hard enough, or should have done something differently. Birth is hard work, and something so hard to control, and yet it is so easy for birthing people to feel they have failed at it.
Research suggests that approximately 12.3% of postpartum women report significant, chronic symptoms that fall short of the full PTSD threshold. These symptoms are real, they affect daily life, and they often go unrecognized as part of a traumatic experience.
You may recognize yourself in this if you:
Have intrusive thoughts or images about parts of the birth
Can't stop crying when you think or talk about it
Are afraid to give birth again
Experienced an emergency C-section, or felt very scared during labor or delivery
Feared that you or your baby would die
Felt that no one was listening to you
Felt helpless while things happened to you and around you
Having a healthy baby is wonderful, and it isn't the whole story. You also deserve to tell your story, to be heard, and to find some grounding after an experience that may have been among the most intense of your life.
How I work
Birth trauma lives in the body as well as in memory. The body may keep bracing, startling, or replaying long after the event is over.
To tend to these places of holding, I start with asking you to tell your story, and listen deeply to what you have experienced. Often this is the first time birthing people tell themselves the full story of their conception, pregnancy and birth.
We may also use Brainspotting and/or EFT tapping to help bring body and mind back to the present moment, so the body can relax and feel calm again.
Brainspotting is attuned, focused work, using the visual field to process what the body is still holding. First we work to create safety, and build resources so you feel ready to do this work. When you are ready, we work at a pace your system can manage, to build pathways that let your body and mind know that this experience is witnessed, supported, and in the past.
EFT tapping is a gentle, hands-on way to settle activation in the moment.
People often notice more ease in sleep, less anxiety, and more ease in caring for their baby and themselves. Your experience is your own, and I don't promise a particular outcome. The aim is to help you return to a calm state and feel confident again.
Birthing people deserve a great deal of care in the healing process, especially when things did not go as planned. You don't need to wait until it has been "long enough," and you don't need to justify why it still affects you. Whether your baby is days old or has just started school, your experience counts.
If this sounds like you, I would be glad to hear your story