Birth Trauma Awareness Week: 14th–18th July 2025

Understanding Birth Trauma: A Silent Struggle Deserving a Voice

Every year, thousands of people across the UK give birth — a moment often expected to be joyful and transformative. For some, however, that moment becomes deeply traumatic, leaving lasting physical, emotional, and psychological scars.

Birth Trauma Awareness Week (14th–18th July) provides a vital opportunity to highlight the reality of birth trauma, share lived experiences, and promote better understanding, support, and accountability.

What Is Birth Trauma?

Birth trauma refers to both the physical injuries sustained during childbirth and the emotional or psychological impact of a difficult, distressing, or traumatic birth experience. While childbirth is inherently intense, birth trauma is distinguished by the lingering sense of fear, helplessness, violation, or being ignored during the process. Importantly, it is not solely defined by what went wrong medically, but by how the experience was felt and internalised by the individual.

The Birth Trauma Association defines birth trauma as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that arises following childbirth. However, many who experience birth trauma do not meet the full diagnostic criteria for PTSD, yet still suffer significant psychological distress that can deeply affect their wellbeing.

The medical aspects of birth trauma can have lasting consequences not only for the mother but also for the baby. Mothers may sustain physical injuries such as severe perineal tears, nerve damage, or complications from emergency interventions like forceps delivery or caesarean sections. These can lead to chronic pain, incontinence, and difficulties with future pregnancies, compounding the emotional impact.

Babies may also be affected, for example, through birth injuries such as oxygen deprivation, fractures, or nerve damage, which can result in long-term developmental or neurological challenges (e.g. cerebral palsy). For mothers, witnessing or learning of their baby’s distress or injury during birth can further heighten the emotional trauma, often leaving them with lasting anxiety, grief, or guilt.

Birth trauma is, therefore, a deeply multifaceted experience and one that intertwines medical outcomes with emotional responses, and whose effects can echo through parenting, bonding, relationships, and mental health for years to come.

Types and Examples of Birth Trauma

Birth trauma can take many forms and varies significantly from person to person. While some may experience physical injury, others may be psychologically traumatised by how the birth was managed — or both.

Here are some common types and examples:

Physical Trauma

• Severe perineal tearing or episiotomies
• Instrumental deliveries, such as forceps or vacuum (ventouse), especially when poorly handled
• Emergency caesarean sections, particularly where delays occurred, this also impacting the baby.
• Shoulder dystocia – where the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck during birth
• Nerve damage, pelvic organ prolapses, or long-term incontinence
• Mismanaged complications, such as undiagnosed breech presentation or haemorrhage

These injuries can lead to life-altering consequences, both physically and emotionally.

Psychological or Emotional Trauma

• Lack of informed consent for interventions such as forceps, C-section, or induction
• Fear of death or serious harm to the baby or themselves
• Being treated with disrespect or insensitivity during an incredibly vulnerable time

Notably, a birth may be considered medically “routine” or “successful” and still be traumatic for the person who experienced it.

How Common Is It?

Birth trauma is more common than many realise. Studies suggest:

• Around 1 in 3 women describe their birth as traumatic.
• Approximately 30,000 people a year in the UK develop PTSD related to childbirth.

Importantly, birth trauma doesn’t only affect mothers. Partners, surrogates, and non-birthing parents can also experience trauma from witnessing a distressing or dangerous birth, feeling helpless, or fearing for their loved one.

The Impact on Parents

Birth trauma can leave a lasting mark on parents, not only emotionally but physically as well. Many people who experience traumatic births go on to face a range of physical complications that affect their daily lives. These may include chronic pelvic or perineal pain, incontinence, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, or mobility issues, particularly when injuries such as nerve damage, tearing, or prolapse are involved. The recovery period can be lengthy and, in some cases, lifelong, especially if adequate postnatal care is not provided.

Emotionally, birth trauma can trigger symptoms such as anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, and flashbacks. It may also lead to depression, withdrawal, or numbness, and many individuals report feeling disconnected from their baby. This emotional distance is not a reflection of poor parenting, but often a response to shock, fear, or grief experienced during labour or delivery.

Some people find themselves avoiding discussions about their birth, while others struggle with the idea of future pregnancies due to fear of going through a similar experience. Partners may also feel helpless, traumatised, or unsupported in the aftermath.

What makes this even more challenging is the cultural pressure to focus solely on the baby’s health. While it is, of course, a relief when a baby is born healthy, this should not overshadow the emotional and physical wellbeing of the parent. Feeling dismissed or told to “just be grateful” can, at times, compound the trauma and make it harder to seek help.

Parents who have experienced birth trauma deserve the proper follow-up care, access to mental health support, and compassionate spaces to process what they’ve been through. Recognising their experience is the first step toward helping them heal.

The Impact on Babies

While the focus of birth trauma is often on the person who has given birth, it’s important to recognise that traumatic births can also affect the baby, both physically and emotionally. In some cases, traumatic deliveries involve emergency interventions such as forceps, ventouse, or unplanned caesarean sections. If not managed appropriately, these interventions may result in physical injuries to the baby, including bruising, nerve damage (such as Erb’s palsy), or fractures.

Oxygen deprivation during birth, often caused by delays in recognising or responding to fetal distress, can have more serious implications. In rare but significant cases, this may lead to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), seizures, or long-term developmental or neurological difficulties. These outcomes are understandably distressing for parents and may require ongoing medical care and support for the child.

In addition to physical health, a parent’s psychological wellbeing after birth plays a critical role in a baby’s emotional development. When a parent is coping with trauma, they may feel disconnected, anxious, or overwhelmed — all of which can interfere with early bonding and responsive caregiving. This doesn’t mean they don’t love or care for their baby; it simply means that their own healing needs must be addressed.

Accessing Support

If you’ve experienced birth trauma, it’s important to know that you are not alone and that support is available. Many people find it helpful to speak with a therapist or access perinatal mental health services. There are also organisations offering targeted help:

• The Birth Trauma Association (BTA): Peer support, information, and forums
• Make Birth Better: Advocacy, training, and mental health resources
• Your GP or midwife: Can refer you to trauma-informed therapy such as EMDR or CBT
• NHS perinatal mental health teams: Specialised support for new parents

Sharing your experience with someone you trust can be an important first step.

Legal Support and Accountability After Birth Trauma

In some cases, birth trauma is not just a result of the natural challenges of labour and delivery, but of negligent or substandard medical care. When healthcare professionals fail to monitor a mother or baby appropriately, delay essential interventions, or proceeding with procedures without fully informed consent, the consequences can be life-altering. These failures may result in serious physical injuries to the mother or baby and can leave long-lasting emotional and psychological scars.

At GoodLaw Solicitors, we represent individuals and families who have experienced birth trauma as a direct result of clinical negligence. These cases may involve missed signs of foetal distress, poor management of labour or emergency situations, inappropriate use of forceps or other instruments, or failures in communication between the medical team and the family. 

While we recognise that no amount of compensation can undo the trauma or restore what has been lost, a successful legal claim can offer vital practical support. This may include financial assistance for treatment, therapy, specialist equipment, or time away from work. It can also provide something equally important: acknowledgement. For many of our clients, having their experience formally recognised and taken seriously brings a sense of validation that the healthcare system did not provide.

In addition to supporting recovery, clinical negligence claims can play a role in driving positive change. By identifying the failings in care that led to a traumatic birth, legal action can help ensure that lessons are learned, and similar incidents are avoided in the future.

Contact GoodLaw Solicitors

If you believe your trauma could have been prevented with better care, we encourage you to contact us. We offer free, confidential initial advice, and we are committed to helping you understand your options and find a path forward that feels right for you.