Hope and awareness of birth trauma & perinatal PTSD
I’m always deeply touched every time another woman* shares her story with me, often because the level of trust that this requires, but also that sharing what awful things a person has survived is difficult and painful. I have just
Read moreCan you hear the voices speak?Is it your ears that they do seek? Some a quiet, some are strong.Do you know to whom they belong? Voices that carry words of pain.Often quivering from the strain. Others full of worthy praise.Filled
Read moreI sat in the psychiatrist’s room, the light shining on my back, warming my tired bones. I had lost hope, hope that anyone could hear me, or know what was clawing at my soul. I finished my story, my years
Read more“Help me, it’s like the walls are caving in.Sometimes I feel like giving upBut I just can’t.It isn’t in my blood.” Shawn Mendes “Laying on the bathroom floor, feeling nothing.I’m overwhelmed and insecure, give me something,I could take to ease
Read moreMy daughter was stood right next to me, her cheeks rosey from the cold wind blowing across the pond. Her tiny hands clutch tightly small pieces of bread, ready to throw to the very eagerly awaiting ducks, she’s happy, her
Read moreIt’s hard to talk about birth trauma, but even harder to talk about suicide. Yet I know from the women that contact me and my own experience that dealing day in, and day out, with the impact of a traumatic
Read moreI sat in the chair feeling numb, was I really in denial? I didn’t think I was, but then I wasn’t the expert. The Community psychiatric nurse (CPN) in front of me wore an expression mixed with pity and frustration.
Read moreI feel worried. Worried, because there seems to be somewhat of a perinatal bandwagon lately. Where ever you look, there are articles, stories being shared and people discussing perinatal mental health, its loud, in your face, singing and dancing. This
Read moreI read the article, tears stinging my eyes. I blink them away and try to let my logical mind silence the thunderous beating in my chest. I look at my daughters, the are smiling sharing joke, laughing and I wonder.
Read moreI could barely hold the funnel to my breast. My hands, swollen and numb grasped as hard as they could, my body, weak, hardly had the strength I needed. I lay there, on the hospital bed, the noise of the
Read moreYou know the ones I mean. You have seen them. The all singing websites and the glossy leaflets. You scroll down and see smiling, happy faces and the testimonies that pull at your heart. Then there is the promises, the
Read more‘May your story be a page in someone else’s survival guide’ The years have past but the memories are etched on my mind. There are certain things you can’t erase, forever burnt into the recesses of your mind, scars that
Read moreFor any family, emotional wellbeing matters. When it comes to mental health the perinatal period can be a challenging time. Adjusting to life with a new baby is hard, but for some families the transition to parenthood is complicated by
Read moreIve been thinking a lot about change recently, so much is being written on the matter and there doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by where change isn’t being discussed in some way, shape or form. Some call
Read moreI remember when I was a child, I had a beautiful doll that cried real tears, and when you fed her a bottle she wet her nappy…I thought she was amazing! When we are little we play mommies and daddies
Read moreThe room was dark and my pillow was wet with silent tears. I could hear my husband breathing deeply as sleep beside me, but sleep had escaped me. I wished the hours away waiting for the light of day to
Read moreWith my eyes tightly squeezed shut all I could hear was the bleeping of the machine next to my bed that was tracing my babies heartbeat. I felt like was staring death in the face, I had been given a
Read moreThis is the third of three blogs looking at what matters in Birth. The previous blog looked at what women voiced about matters to them most when it comes to their birth experience. This blog is some of things that
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