WAS YOUR BIRTH DIFFICULT?

Or perhaps you have experienced a traumatic event in pregnancy, or during the postnatal period?

And even though it occurred in the past do you feel that it is still very present in your mind and is still affecting you?

It’s not unusual after any traumatic event for a person to feel out of sorts and in a state of shock.

Reoccurring, unwanted thoughts about the birth that run on a constant replay in the mind can be exhausting and produce anxiety. You may feel that you wish to move on but inexplicably you are unable to put it behind you.

Sometimes it is others who are encouraging you to move on or ‘get over it’ and unsurprisingly you maybe thinking ‘I can’t’, or ‘I wish I could’ or ‘you don’t understand how bad this feels or how hard it is’.

Do you feel left in a state of hyper vigilance (as if on high alert at all times) wary of others touching or handling your baby or reluctant to put your baby down? Nightmares, flashbacks and hyper sensitivity can also contribute to this feeling of still living through the trauma even though it’s an event in the past.

Are you keen to avoid all reminders of the birth and prefer to push away unwanted feelings or thoughts about it, only to find that they stubbornly return? By avoiding situations where birth might be discussed, you can feel isolated and lonely. Perhaps you believe that no one can understand or relate to your experience.

Life with a new baby can be challenging enough but made even tougher when having to recover from a traumatic experience and cope with these feelings too.

In many cases mums and dads manage to move on past these feelings naturally as they assimilate the shock and move on with their lives as a family.

Sometimes this doesn’t happen and the anxiety, recurrent thoughts and hyper vigilance and other symptoms remain. And if you feel that still, after three months of the event, you or your partner are still experiencing the symptoms of PTSD then you may benefit from seeking treatment.

If you would like to move on, and if you feel the time is right to move on...

...then we can help

We offer a simple but very effective 3 step process that neutralises the toxic feelings and lifts the symptoms of PTSD.

Usually delivered over two or three sessions this process activates a person’s own natural ability to heal by using deep relaxation, guided use of their memory and of their imagination.

By freeing a person from their PTSD symptoms it is possible to create the opportunity to feel more positively about their situation and to begin enjoying parenthood.

Many parents desperately wish to move on but feel owned by their traumatic birth. This technique releases the feelings associated with the birth so that it is possible to look back and remember the birth with neutral feelings about it. The birth can still be remembered but it no longer provokes any anxiety.

Parenthood can still be challenging and sometimes those challenges may be the result of the birth itself but everything is much easier to deal with when there is peace and calm (where there was once turmoil and panic).

"After a long and traumatic birth, I was finding it very hard to accept and move on from my experience. I was very down and emotional, and it was starting to affect my day to day life and also my relationship. I thought of the birth often, and I found it hard talking about it and sharing my story. It was just too emotional for me, I just couldn't get over it and move forward. After my treatment, I felt like a new person. I felt happier, relaxed and like a huge weight had been lifted. I felt 'numb' when I thought of my experience, I couldn't seem to feel any emotion or feelings towards it all. I felt like I had somehow 'forgotten' how I even felt before my treatment. I was able to accept it, and can now think/talk about it without all those emotions and getting upset. I have put it all behind me, am happier than ever, and now look at my birth story as just simply a memory."

Hayley's Story