Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder arising following a stressful event which threatens the life or physical integrity of the self or others, and to which the individual responds with intense fear, helplessness or horror (DSM-IV-R criteria, American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Around 30% of women rate their experience of childbirth as traumatic, and between 1 and 6% develop full PTSD which involves flashbacks, re-experiencing the event, avoiding reminders of it, and feeling emotionally numb and cut off.

Women are at higher risk for PTSD following childbirth if they have existing vulnerabilities (previous mental health problems, abuse or trauma) and if they have an emergency caesarean or forceps delivery. However, women with an obstetrically normal birth are still at risk. This seminar presents my PhD research showing that the support and care a woman gets during birth interacts with both her prior vulnerabilities and the level of intervention during the birth, to cause PTSD symptoms. The social support a woman gets after birth also impacts on her ability to recover. Clinical implications for maternity care and general practice are discussed.

Dr Elizabeth Ford, Research Fellow,
PCPH, Brighton & Sussex Medical School