Abstract
Introduction: Childbirth is a stressful event in every woman's life, leading to traumatic deliveries in half of the cases. This study aimed at describing mothers’ lived experiences which make them perceive their childbirth as traumatic.Methods: In this descriptive phenomenological study, based on the DSM-V-A criteria, 32 mothers who had perceptions of a traumatic event during their labor and delivery were explored through semi-structured interviews, and the collected data were analyzed using the Colaizzi’s method.Results: Four main themes could be extracted from the experiences of the mothers. The first theme was sensational and emotional experiences followed by clinical experiences, legal experiences and human dignity, and environmental experiences. The sensational and emotional experiences included four main categories (anxiety, fear, sorrow, anger). The theme of clinical experiences included two main categories (avoidable and unavoidable childbirth complications). The theme of legal experiences and human dignity included two main categories (non-observance of the charter of patient rights, and non-observance of human rights). The theme of environmental experiences also included two main categories (lack of proper supervision and management).Conclusion: To prevent traumatic childbirth and its negative effects, different psychological aspects of childbirth need to be identified.
Highlights
Childbirth is a stressful event in every woman's life, leading to traumatic deliveries in half of the cases
Since traumatic childbirth does not often receive due attention, and some obstetricians and gynecologists are not well-informed about this issue[18] and since the few studies so far done worldwide on posttraumatic stress disorder emphasize the emotions and thoughts of mothers who experience childbirth trauma, this study aimed at exploring Lived Traumatic Childbirth Experiences of Newly Delivered Mothers Admitted to the Postpartum Ward, so that the experiences and perceptions of the mothers who had a traumatic childbirth can be studied shortly after the event can in an effort to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder in the future childbirths
Unavoidable and avoidable childbirth complications contribute to the formation of this theme, and in Anderson’s study factors such as increased level of midwifery interventions during labor and delivery, emergency cesarean, instrumental delivery were identified as important in the formation of traumatic childbirth.[28]
Summary
Childbirth is a stressful event in every woman's life, leading to traumatic deliveries in half of the cases. The first theme was sensational and emotional experiences followed by clinical experiences, legal experiences and human dignity, and environmental experiences. The sensational and emotional experiences included four main categories (anxiety, fear, sorrow, anger). The theme of clinical experiences included two main categories (avoidable and unavoidable childbirth complications). If during a childbirth, the delivering mother is in a frightening situation where she feels her or her baby’s life or health is threatened, she will perceive her childbirth experience as a trauma, and the term "traumatic childbirth" is used to describe this experience which has a prevalence of 47% of in Iran.[6,7] If, after at least one month, the newborn mother is not able to cope with the recent stress caused by the traumatic event, she will manifest symptoms which are called “postnatal posttraumatic stress disorder",5,8 which is seen in approximately 3.71% of the cases.[9]
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