A Threefold Path to Heal Birth Trauma

Many women come to heal birth trauma with a few simple statements. One of them is: “I had a baby.” Women and couples who suffer in the aftermath of birth trauma struggle to make sense of how they are feeling and what happened to them, and there are not systems in place to catch these families after birth. This presentation will talk about what happens for families who have birth trauma. The statement, “I had a baby,” then becomes so much more. There are layers and layers to a birth trauma experience. We have found that we name all the layers, and then complete an assessment of the autonomic nervous system, women and couples begin to feel better almost immediately. We propose a three-fold path to healing birth trauma that also includes the baby. Step one is to identify the layers and then find strengths within those layers. The second step is to encourage women and couples to write down the story. The third step is to create a pathway to repair the hurt. This is done with the nervous system of the family with specific messages for the person who has suffered this trauma. Additional skills for helping express and release autonomic nervous system responses will also be presented as time allows.