Life after a Birth Trauma
It’s hard to trust.
If you’ve experienced a traumatic birth then you may have found that your sense of trust is shaken up. Trust in the medical system. Trust in your insurance company. Trust for yourself. For your body.
For women looking to grow their family, it can often be surprising to find that their birth trauma shows up in these spaces. For some that can look like an aversion or anxiety around intimacy, for many, it can look like dread or panic when making medical appointments. For others, it can show up as a hyper-fixation around what they “should” be doing or what they’re not doing “right” or around safety.
If you’re reading this and feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of pregnancy or are pregnant and struggling with anxiety, please know that you’re not alone. I hope Worth and Wellness Psychology can serve as a space for you to pause, reflect, and reach out for support.
Leaning Into Your Intuition
If you’re a millennial mom, then you likely know the struggle of tuning into your own intuition. With the presence of media, podcasts, blogs, and support groups - more now than ever, we as a society have a lot of access to well… everything. While you may find that you’ve learned a lot of valuable life tricks through social media platforms, you may have also noticed that all that information can be overwhelming.
Everyone has an opinion. On. Everything. As a new or expecting mom, you don’t only have to get advice from female figures in your life, but also from everyone with an opinion on the internet.
With all that constant stream of information and feedback, it can sometimes be easy to lose sense of our own intuition. We can lose our sense of self-trust in knowing what is right for ourselves, for our relationships, or for our families.
So much of motherhood, pregnancy, and life as a woman is impacted by external messages. Around what you should be doing… are not doing enough of… or where you don’t measure up. In working with a birth trauma therapist, new mamas can learn to focus on regaining confidence and trust in themselves.
Ready to work on self-trust?
Get started with a birth trauma specialist today.
Self- Trust
Many of the women I work with who have experienced a birth trauma share that they felt numb, frozen, or distanced from themselves during the experience. They share that all their focus was on trying to take in the overwhelming information from their medical team, on figuring out how to keep their baby safe, and whether their family was going to be okay.
After.
After is when new mamas often feel the weight of everything they had to carry. After is often when self-doubt can come in about whether I’m a good mom, I can keep my baby safe, I can breastfeed, I can meet the expectations everyone else has for me. After is often the space when new mamas need the most support, love, and encouragement, and sometimes this is where it can be the hardest to find or to ask for it.
Body Trust
No human is immune to self-doubt around their body. The world we live in often floods us with examples of what’s “healthy", how we “should” look, and what “type” of look is attractive, worthy, and wanted.
Those messages don’t stop within the folds of motherhood. All it takes is a few minutes on social media and you may find yourself flooded with messages like, How to lose that baby fat, How I lost 30 lbs in two weeks, get back to your pre-baby weight. Sound familiar?
On top of all that, moms who have gone through birth trauma are often faced with questions and self-doubt about their own bodies. New clients often ask me why their body didn’t do “what it was supposed to” if they “messed up somehow”, or if they ”could have done something to change the outcome.”
Learn more about how a birth trauma therapist can help.
Begin Trauma Therapy in Los Angeles, CA Today!
If you’re struggling with life after a birth trauma, therapy can be a beautiful space to begin processing, challenging internal doubts, and building up self-confidence. In my experience as a birth trauma therapist, I often get asked if you’ll have to retell every moment of your traumatic birth experience. Or if therapy is a place that will open up all that anxiety and overwhelm. I want you to know that therapy for a traumatic birth is a secure space. It is a place to explore who you are, what stories and narratives you carry with you, and to empower you to challenge self-doubt so you can create room for self-growth. To begin your journey at Worth and Wellness Psychology follow the steps below:
Speak with our caring birth trauma therapist.
Start your journey to healing.
Other Services Offered at Worth and Wellness Psychology
Here at Worth and Wellness Psychology, we work to help you with your birth trauma as well as other mental health needs. We specialize in many forms of therapy in California, including EMDR therapy, online therapy, and individual relationship therapy. Therapy for dating, therapy for women of color, therapy for therapists, and therapy for highly sensitive people are other services we offer as well. If you’re ready to learn more about how you can get support, reach out today.
