Content warning: This birth story discusses trauma. Topics discussed include pre-eclampsia, emergency C-section and mental health struggles. If you are seeking support for your birth trauma, we have downloadable resources here or you can join one of our free Peer2Peer Support programs.     My first pregnancy was pretty unremarkable up until 38 weeks when I developed severe pre-eclampsia and went on to have a category 1 emergency C-section. While my baby was born healthy, I required admission to the intensive care unit where I woke up alone. Although I recovered w ..read more

You need to inform people. Full stop. Please don’t withhold information from women. When I got my wisdom teeth out, I was informed about every potential side effect. Did it scare me? No. It informed me and prepared me because I did have nerve pain for almost a year after. But I was given the dignity of being told. The psychological impact from not-being-told about the pelvic impacts of forceps – being blindsided – was too great for me. In fact, I wasn’t informed about forceps at all. I had no idea what prolapse or pelvic avulsion was… because the medical community didn’t think I should know. T ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, ABTA CEO Amy Dawes and our Group Facilitator Lead Rhiannah Pohlman, visited Tamworth Community Health in Tamworth (NSW) to deliver facilitator training. Since its launch in 2020, ABTA has been offering our six-week birth trauma support program, Peer2Peer Meets. This program was developed to address the gap left by traditional mothers’ groups, which often leave women with birth-related trauma feeling isolated and unsupported. Peer2Peer Meets provides women who have experienced birth-related trauma with a safe space to understand and explore their experiences. It helps t ..read more

The Australasian Birth Trauma Association welcomes the release of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry Report into Birth Trauma but calls for urgent funding to address systemic failures in the maternal health system nationwide.     Since The Australasian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA) launched in 2017, it has played a significant role in providing input and raising awareness about the extent and impact of birth trauma by amplifying the voices of women and their families. ABTA’s contributions were crucial in highlighting the need for better support and policies to address birth trauma ex ..read more

    Earlier in 2024, the ABTA CEO Amy Dawes was invited to testify in front of the UK Birth Trauma Inquiry, which was initiated by Theo Clarke MP in January 2024, and modelled after the NSW Birth Trauma Inquiry of 2023-2024. Amy went back to the UK for the launch of the inquiry report, which was released on 13 May 2024. Here is Amy, writing from the UK. It’s been a big week for birth trauma in the UK. Having landed in London for the first time in seven years, I headed straight to Parliament to attend the launch of the Birth Trauma Inquiry Report. The report has been drawn from o ..read more

My name is Monique and my son Levi is 11 months, fast approaching his first birthday! I’ve been watching, smiling and encouraging other mums to tell me their plans for extravagant first birthday parties. When they ask me what we are doing, “Oh, I think I’ve done enough these past 12 months, it’s all up to Mitch (husband) now!” Really, the reason behind this is that I am raw, afraid, sad, angry, and in a “glass case of emotion” for the anniversary of the best and worst day of our lives, and the first day of my new life and body. When I became pregnant, it was our last try at natural conception ..read more

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Trigger Warning: This birth story discusses trauma. Topics discussed include PTSD, misdiagnosis, physical trauma & pain. If you are seeking support for your birth trauma, we have downloadable resources here or join one of our free Peer2Peer Support programs.    I imagined seeking help in the first few weeks post-delivery would have been easy. However, the constant message I received was that I had a new baby, and I couldn’t possibly know what I was talking about. I was told, ‘You should be in pain you’ve just had a baby’. If I had been taken seriously ..read more

Trigger Warning: This birth story discusses trauma. Topics discussed include haemorrhage, PTSD, prolapse, physical birth trauma, postnatal anxiety & tearing. If you are seeking support for your birth trauma, we have downloadable resources here or join one of our free Peer2Peer Support programs. First Pregnancy Motherhood was never part of my immediate plans. I was weeks away from embarking on a 3-month placement in Ghana, Africa to work in a mental hospital as part of my psychology studies. Unexpectedly, I found out I was pregnant, and it felt like the worst thing ..read more

Content warning: discussion of forceps, postpartum haemorrhage, NICU, PTSD   In early 2020 my fiancé and I learned we were expecting our first child. We had only become engaged the day before we found out she was pregnant. our lives quickly changed, but we were excited and couldn’t wait to plan our wedding and prepare for our little one. COVID-19 hit Melbourne suddenly and was followed by many lockdowns. Very quickly, our plans to be married before the birth was cancelled, and as an expecting father, I found myself locked out of appointments, unable to provide support to my fiancé or ..read more