Bringing a baby into the world can bring up a range of physical and emotional complications that many of us simply aren’t ready for.

What is intervention?

Sometimes during the birth, the health of mother and/or baby can be put at risk and actions need to be taken by the attending medical professionals. This is known as an ‘intervention’.

An intervention occurs when it becomes clear that the birth will not safely happen without some kind of assistance. It can also occur if the baby is in distress and needs to be born more quickly.

Types of interventions might include pain relief, an emergency caesarean section, an episiotomy, blood transfusion or the use of forceps or a vacuum.

Responding to a complicated birth

Our individual responses to these kinds of interventions can be extremely complex and very personal. Some people find certain interventions more difficult to deal with than others.

We know that one in three women giving birth in Australia experience their birth as traumatic. Each of these women will have their own unique response to the birth. If you are a new mum you might have your own experience that is hard to process. It might even be something that a person watching from the outside might not consider to be traumatic.

If this is you, what is important is that you feel traumatised. Whatever happened during the birth, you felt frightened, unsafe or unheard. These kinds of feelings can play a role in the development of postnatal anxiety, depression or other stress-related disorders.

Feel how you feel – it’s OK

Our responses to the birthing process are often influenced by what else has happened in our lives – previous experiences that we bring to the birth. That might be childhood trauma, previous sexual abuse, lack of understanding around the birthing process, physical illness or injury or a difficult relationship with a partner.

We also hear on PANDA’s Helpline that previous experience with the medical system or mental health system can affect how you feel about your birth. Giving birth under current COVID restrictions brings another challenge; many parents are going through the birthing process without their usual supports either in the birthing suite or once they get home again. It’s important to understand that this can have a particular impact in some cultures, including our First Nations people and those from a range of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who might have particular cultural needs which sometimes are not met during the birthing process.

Other experiences can also have a significant emotional impact, such as wanting to have a particular kind of birth, not being fully aware of what’s in store, or lack of health advice during pregnancy.

If you have a healthy baby, you might feel that it isn’t right to think negatively in any way about the birth. Sometimes advice from well-meaning medical professionals and others around you can encourage you to put the birth behind you and focus on your healthy baby. They might suggest that you don’t dwell on the birth now that you’ve got a healthy newborn to look after – a healthy child is all that matters.

This kind of advice is often not helpful. Your feelings do matter. They are real, and they are therefore powerful. If you feel you have experienced a difficult birth, either as the mother giving birth or as the partner present at the birth, it is important that you and everybody around you acknowledges that. Sitting on difficult or troubling feelings without addressing them can make them grow stronger and affect your emotional and mental wellbeing, and potentially affect your relationship with your partner and/or your child. Sometimes it can lead to postnatal anxiety or depression, which is a serious illness.

Note: some complicated births may result in physical injury for mum. These injuries may or may not be identified immediately. If in doubt about this, try not to be afraid to ask questions. For more information, the Australasian Birth Trauma Association website has some great information.

A delayed response

On PANDA’s National Helpline we regularly hear mums – and even dads – say they don’t remember much about the birthing process. We know this is one way the mind can process the grief or loss caused by a birth that was traumatic or didn’t live up to expectations in some way (memory loss is a common response to trauma in general).

We hear women talk about feeling ‘emotionally numb’ after the birth. Sometimes this can affect how they bond with the new baby. Sometimes the real feelings about the birth don’t arrive until weeks or months after the birth – when the new mum or dad has had time to settle into their new reality and has time to reflect.

Sometimes the feelings then come in a rush. They can overwhelm you. It can be hard to deal with the flood of emotions. If this happens to you, you are not alone, and there is help available.

PANDA’s National Helpline provides a safe and confidential space for anyone struggling with the feelings caused by a difficult birth experience. Our highly trained and caring counsellors can help you work through these challenges by talking openly and honestly about your thoughts and feelings about the birth. On the other hand, if you are finding it hard to talk about your birth, we would never force you to talk about it, and try other ways to support your mental health.

Other options

Receiving clear information from a health professional about the details surrounding the birth can help. Sometimes during the birth process things might have been rushed and you felt you hadn’t really understood what was happening or what you were giving consent to. You might have felt powerless or that you had no control over the situation.

If you have a trusted obstetrician that you feel you could talk to, you can talk to them about your birth experience. Or perhaps your GP. Sometimes it helps to write down a list of questions beforehand – this can help you stay on track during your discussions.

You can also organise to meet with the hospital to discuss the birth. On PANDA’s Helpline we hear of women who have had a difficult birth and have met with hospital staff afterwards to talk about the birth. Sometimes they take a support person or a partner and might meet with the nurse unit manager or somebody else that is a liaison from the hospital.

However sometimes hospital staff are more focused on the medical side of the decision-making and these conversations may not be as helpful for exploring your feelings in relation to the birth, so it might be worthwhile considering reaching out to mental health trained support options for that.

On top of that, sometimes it can feel too scary to go back in to the hospital. If it doesn’t feel comfortable the PANDA Helpline can talk through your feelings around the birth and make some suggestions about counsellors who specialise in that area.

If you’ve had a difficult or traumatic experience with a previous birth, it will be natural to be anxious about another pregnancy and birth. Talk to your GP, midwife or obstetrician about how you’d like the delivery to go next time. And if you feel you are not ready or interested in another birth or baby after a traumatic or difficult birth, these feelings and/or decisions are valid too.

For more information: When things don’t go to plan in childbirth.

PANDA’s National Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Helpline
1300 726 306 9am – 7.30pm Mon – Fri (AEST/AEDT)