Birth Trauma Awareness Week

The history of Birth Trauma Awareness Week

We’ve been running the annual Worldwide Birth Trauma Awareness Week since 2017. It’s been instrumental in increasing understanding and awareness of birth trauma among the public, health professionals and policy makers.

Birth Trauma Awareness Week has three aims:

• Draw attention to the subject of traumatic birth and the impact it has on women and their families

• Share useful information about birth trauma, including how to get help

• Encourage people to tell their stories and reduce the taboo on traumatic birth

Awareness Week is normally in the third week of July (apart from in 2017, when we held it in August, and in 2020, when we held it in September because of the Covid lockdown).

Each year’s focus is different, supported by activities such as Insta Live Q&A sessions with specialists including doctors, physiotherapists and midwives; video interviews with experts; and blogposts from medical professionals. We also ask people to share their own birth trauma experience using the relevant hashtag.

Highlights from previous years

2024: Informed consent. #NothingWithoutMyConsent #ExplainThenAskAgain

Our survey on women’s experiences of informed consent in labour and birth found, shockingly, that two in five (42.4%) women reported having procedures performed on them without their consent. These findings were published in the Times.

Social highlights included video interviews with Donna Ockenden and Professor Anji Doshani on informed consent, and Insta Lives with Dr Ravi Jayaram and Maria Repanos of Hudgell Solicitors.

2023: Healing. #HelpingMeHeal

We asked people to post a picture on social media, using the hashtag #HelpingMeHeal, of something that that was helping them to heal from birth trauma, whether that was a friend, a favourite walk, a pet, an activity, or a family member. Some of our members shared their stories of healing in the Huffington Post: I Turned My Pain Into Purpose' And 4 Other Stories Of Healing From Birth Trauma HuffPo, 17 July, 2023

Our social media activity included a video interview with former Strictly professional dancer Kristina Rihanoff about how yoga helped her heal from her own birth trauma.

2022: Diagnosis and treatment. #TreatBirthTrauma

We used the hashtag #TreatBirthTrauma to ask people to share their experiences of being diagnosed with, and treated for, birth trauma.

In partnership with the Australasian Birth Trauma Association and Make Birth Better, we conducted research into physical birth injuries and their impact on mothers and families, and the results were published in the Independent. The survey found that 84% of those who have experienced a birth injury say it has affected their confidence and self-esteem.

2021: Connections. #HandInHandChallenge

We highlighted the importance of making connections with others after a traumatic birth, and invited parents to share their stories of connecting with their babies, their partners or their friends after traumatic birth. We also asked people to use the hashtag #HandInHandChallenge to share a photo of their hand holding that of their child to symbolise the importance of connection.

Highlights included a live Zoom chat with psychotherapist Alex Kasozi, a pre-recorded video from tv presenter Anna Williamson and a blog post from Melissa Hogenboom, author of The Motherhood Complex

We also published a short survey by Censuswide showing that only 40% of people knew that it was possible to experience PTSD as a result of giving birth.

2020: Journeys. #BabyStepsChallenge

We focused on people’s birth trauma journeys:

• The path to healing (both physically and mentally)

• Coming to terms with a rocky journey into motherhood

• Navigating relationship changes (partner intimacy, baby bonding, etc.)

• Finding justice/closure

We released the findings of a survey of 798 members of our Facebook group, which included powerful testimony about people’s traumatic births.

We also ran a very successful social media challenge. Using the hashtag #BabyStepsChallenge, we invited people to photograph a pair of their shoes next to those of their child or children to represent the baby steps of recovering from birth trauma.

2019: Relationships.

We explored different birth trauma relationships: with partners, with baby, with friends, with family. We held a series of five expert Q&As with psychologists and health professionals in our Facebook group about different types of relationship and how they were affected by birth trauma.

Our Scottish rep, Gill Skene, shared the dramatic effect of birth trauma on her relationship with her husband. First-time mother: postnatal PTSD 'made me want to kill my husband' The Herald, 30 June, 2019

2018: Share our stories.

We launched our video of five women talking about their traumatic birth experiences.

2017

Our first Awareness Week didn’t have a theme. We found that a lot of women were willing to share their stories – many were very moving and shocking. We had a hefty amount of media coverage, partly thanks to the fact that one of our members wrote a blogpost about her traumatic birth that went viral. The post was republished in the Huffington Post, and it’s still worth a read: I Had A S**t Birth. Here's Six Reasons I Really Want Others To Know HuffPo, 16 August, 2017

Other coverage included:

Birth trauma: Women urged to ‘raise your voices’ BBC, 13 August, 2017

‘I feel a loss for what was supposed to be magical birth experience’ BabyCentre, 14 August, 2017

Severe birth trauma has left me terrified of having another child The Guardian, 17 August, 2017

Struggling after giving birth? You’re not alone BBC, 19 August, 2017

I felt like a stranger in my own body HuffPo, 20 August, 2017

'I would start to act as though I was giving birth again’ Good to Know, 26 August, 2017