Birth Trauma Ontario

I hope you'll join us. I'll be presenting in the Preventing and Healing from Trauma add-on package "Maternal Experience of Helplessness as a Precipitator for Traumatic Birth: Recognition & Strategies to Mitigate Helplessness and Avoid Trauma". You'll come away with simple strategies you can immediately incorporate into your practice to reduce the pandemic of birth-related trauma.

This article comes from the UK, which just goes to show that the entrenched patriarchy, misogyny, and abuse that passes for maternity services is a global issue. This report of continued of lack of consent, lack of information, lack of informed decision-making autonomy, and abuse is told in every country that practices western-style obstetrics and midwifery. * 42% of mothers were not the primary decision maker in their own care, the practitioner was, despite a court ruling th...at says otherwise * 33% were not elicited for their opinion regarding their own care * 25% did not have their choices respected * 14% had their choices overruled by the practitioner * 43% were not given information that was relevant to their particular situation * 61% needed more information regarding their care plan to make informed choices Staff tended to treat me like a child, telling me what I must do. When I disagreed with their instructions I was met with disapproval and silence. It was a battle. --> In a US study, 80% of women are mistreated by hospital staff when they have a difference of opinion with the practitioner. The exodus has begun. More families are leaving this system of abuse and oppression for safer and more humane options. https://www.independent.co.uk//women-childbirth-choices-re

A 2019 study* revealed that specialist physicians, like obstetricians, only asked what was on their client’s agenda about 20% of the time. And then they interrupted the answer within about 11 seconds. Traumatic birth experiences include the fact that the mother was not listened to. Practitioners are not listening long enough to gather good information. Parents - interrupt your practitioner until you’ve been heard. Yours is the most critical voice in the room! Trauma-informed... care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #consent #informedconsent #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse * Ospina, N. S., Phillips, K. A., Rodriguez-Gutierrez, R., Castaneda-Guarderas, A., Gionfriddo, M. R., Branda, M. E., & Montori, V. M. (2019). Eliciting the patient’s agenda-secondary analysis of recorded clinical encounters. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(1), 36-40.

When reviewing the literature on traumatic birth experiences mothers often describe feeling like a slab on the table or a piece of meat meaning they lost all dignity. Hospital staff see thousands of breasts and vulvas and for them, its just one more. But for the birthing mother, this is her body and her dignity. She will remember how she was treated, probably for the rest of her life. Respect her boundaries. Guard her dignity. Be that person!... Trauma-informed care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #consent #informedconsent #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse

When the client is treated with dignity, you see a shift in trust and often an increase in wellbeing. The mother and baby are biologically one unit but also two separate individuals. Treating the baby with the same dignity shifts the dynamic of the client-provider relationship so that everyone is part of the process. It moves from a top-down model where the client is expected to comply with the practitioner to a collaborative relationship that aims for the wellbeing of everyo...ne involved. Studies show this produces the best health outcomes - for the client, the baby, and the practitioner. It may seen awkward at first to introduce yourself to a swollen uterus, but the results can be profound. The baby becomes familiar with your voice as a benevolent person and often moves in response. Mothers in my practice will sometimes weep that for the first time, someone treated their baby with the same kindness theyve been asking for. Try it. See what happens. Trauma-informed care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #consent #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse

In reviewing the literature regarding traumatic birth experiences, mothers often report being ignored, unheard, not listened to, not believed, like a slab of meat, a vessel for gathering data, and an obstacle in extracting the baby. They report being subjected to the wrong course of action because no one asked them or listened to them. Technology and instruments are additional tools for gathering information. They dont replace the mothers input. Trauma-informed care is life...-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #consent #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse

The birth of a baby can be a profound transformative event in a familys life. An event that can be ruined by rude, condescending, or offensive behaviour from maternity staff. Remember your manners! Be courteous. Use kind language. Treat your clients exactly how youd like to be treated if you were an incredibly vulnerable guest in a foreign land. Trauma-informed care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare... #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse See more

Structural violence contributes to a traumatic birth experience. This involves an unequal power dynamic where the clinician and hospital staff hold the power and can impose routines and rituals on the client without their ability to decline or make informed decisions. Trauma-informed care balances the power dynamic so that everyone is on the same team and is treated with the same level of respect. Information needs to flow in a way that keeps this dynamic in balance. A si...mple strategy is to deliver information and have discussions about care on the same physical plane. A client who is lying in bed and a provider who is standing up delivering information down to her will receive this information differently than if they were talking face-to-face. Balancing the power dynamic ensures delivery of care that feels safe and respectful. It protects the provider from being misrepresented as imposing anything on the client. Trauma-informed care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse

Fight-or-flight is a response to feeling threatened. Maternity care can be experienced as threatening to those with a history of trauma for a number of reasons, including the common threat of a dead baby to gain compliance or loss of autonomy over their body and the decisions being made. A blocked exit adds to the sense of being trapped. A simple change in delivery of care where you never come between the client and the exit is a simple way to de-escalate feelings of powerles...sness or impending threat. Trauma-informed care is life-saving care. Learn the skills. #traumainformedcare #traumainformed #obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #obgyn #obstetrics #midwife #midwifery #doula #obresident #obnurse #labornurse #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse

We need to abandon the idea that being mistreated in a hospital is "safer" than a family birth or freebirth. Emerging from a hospital birth with a living baby isn't enough. Mothers must be able to continue to live as well. Suicide is now a leading cause of death in the first year postpartum. How mothers are treated plays a significant role as it causes interpersonal birth-related trauma. It's now become uncommon to hear of a fully supported, trauma-informed, hospital birth that included informed consent. There are good reasons families are birthing away from L&D.

CALL FOR STORIES: an investigative journalist with a proven track record of high profile obstetric violence stories has reached out with the following request: Looking to hear from Indigenous patients, clients, and professionals who would be open to sharing stories about childbirth during the pandemic. If you'd like to speak to the journalist about your experience & consider participating in her investigation (you do not have to agree to having your name used), reach out to: ... Annie Burns-Pieper, [email protected] If you are a mother who is dealing with a traumatic birth experience and would like the support of other mothers, you can request to join our closed facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/birthtraumaontario/

Others are speaking up ... and writing poems. This is a stunning presentation on the risks and lack of evidence for routine stretch-and-sweeps. It's a crude, blunt instrument inserted into a complex system with the intention of bypassing evolutionarily necessary adaptive processes to cut the pregnancy short by a possible few days. It's not done to address an emergency. It's only done to interrupt the normal physiological process for the purpose of making the pregnancy fit i...nto some arbitrary timeline. Thank you Paratoi - Prepared via Clinical Practice & Critical Thought #EndRoutineStretchAndSweep

The number of families contacting Birth Trauma Ontario recently to report being threatened by their OB or midwife with child welfare services for declining/delaying routines or procedures has skyrocketed in recent weeks. Its all through the academic literature that the dead baby threat is the most common abuse of power by maternity staff to gain compliance from a client. Thats where the practitioner lies to the parents to say that the baby is at risk of dying if they don...t acquiesce. Its immature and unbecoming of a health care provider. Parents are becoming more informed and are rejecting this old tactic. They expect to be engaged in an informed consent conversation where their autonomy is respected. Instead, they are being met with escalating threats of reporting them to child welfare services to investigate them for being unfit parents due to non-compliance and possibly having the baby apprehended at birth or having their other children taken. Why child services agrees to be used like an unthinking lap dog at the industrys behest is beyond me. Responsible professionals NEVER resort to threats in any capacity, especially in lieu of patient autonomy and consent. Hospitals should be investing in mandatory trauma-informed training, including ethics, communication, and the laws of consent. Parents need to report every instance of this unethical behaviour. And they can consider dropping this business in favour of something that delivers safe and respectful services. A drop in business is the surest way to rapid change. It will also lessen the potential that youll be the 1 in 3 that has a traumatic experience or the 1 in 8 who ends up with postpartum PTSD. #endobstetricalnonsense #obstetricviolence #informedconsent #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #metoointhebirthroom #obstetrics #obgyn #obresident #obnurse #midwife #doula

It's long overdue. The hospital system and the children's welfare system have been invoking each other in a cycle of abuse towards marginalised women for far too long. The hospital system has been emboldened by this unholy alliance and now invokes CAS as their barking lap dog to get women to acquiesce to the procedures they prefer.... Marginalised women have been wisely avoiding the hospital system due to "birth alerts" and overzealous apprehensions. However, in avoiding the hospital system, it's also necessitated avoiding community support and care that tends to funnel women into the hospital system. With the end of "birth alerts" this coming October, marginalised women may still need to avoid the hospital system until there's better training in trauma-informed care and cultural competency. https://news.ontario.ca//ontario-eliminating-the-practice-

At a recent consultation a mother relayed how she acquiesced to a procedure she didnt want because she knew the OB was heading down the path of calling in the industrys barking lap dogs Childrens Services due to non-compliance. She feared for her familys safety. Threats in any form, whether its the old tired dead baby threat or the newer threat of getting child apprehension services involved are forms of obstetric violence. Obstetric or midwifery services exist to sup...port the health of the mother and to provide competent birth support should the mother choose it. However, theyve become an industry where clients are expected to serve them. Obstetricians and midwives need training in trauma-informed skills. They need training in consent, ethics, and client autonomy. Until they get this necessary training and change their behaviour, those who can, should consider leaving this industry for something safer. Theres nothing like a noticeable drop in business and income to trigger change. #obstetricviolence #informedconsent #nomeansno #obgyn #obresident #midwifery #midwife #doula #obnurse #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #educationmatters

Oh ACOG, not only are you insanely tone deaf, you have got your heads up your collective narcissistic arses. Throughout the world, obstetricians and other medical providers have given themselves permission to do pretty much whatever they want with women. In birth, women around the world are slapped, pinched, pinned down, lied to, yelled at, coerced, shamed, insulted, cut, punished, and threatened. You know, another day at the office.... Women have been saying for generations, that their vaginas are considered fair game. Saying "no" often doesn't mean a damned thing. And get this. Women who are unconscious for surgery are also subject to non-consenting vaginal exams by medical students coming by to have a good ole grope and feel. So for the first time, a state puts the brakes on this bunch and Florida passes a law to require written consent for a pelvic exam. The response? It upsets the poor lambs at ACOG. How dare anyone interfere in their "patient-physician relationship". Why do they have to get written consent to go up women's vaginas and other doctors don't have to get written consent to look down a throat? Why should women's health care be any different? Well, darlings. Because you've proven that ever since you existed that you can't be trusted to treat women with respect. Until the bunch of you are trained better, it has to look like this. https://www.acog.org//acog-statement-on-new-florida-law-re

The rampant abuse of birthing families needs to stop. Using CAS as enforcers is not only a huge breach of ethics and human rights, but medical tyranny. Please help this family make a difference. No person should be threatened, abused, and traumatised because they made a choice a care provider wouldn't have made for themselves.

"Very little is known about how people experience care during pregnancy and childbirth across Canada, especially among people with various identities, circumstances and backgrounds. Differences in experiences and outcomes across communities may be linked to access to care, their individual health status, and/or how they are treated. We do not know for sure, and there is very little research that has asked community members to decide on what is most important to study and u...nderstand. "In the RESPCCT study, a diverse group of people who had recent pregnancy experiences created or chose the questions to ask. They worked with researchers and community-based organizations to develop this survey, and to reach people across Canada who want to tell their stories of pregnancy and childbearing. "Information gathered in the surveys will be used to improve childbearing care for all types of communities." If you've been pregnant in Canada in the last 10 years please consider participating. https://respcct.ca/

Birth Trauma Ontario is contacted frequently by people looking for trauma-informed services. They need doulas, childbirth educators, midwives, dentists, advocates, physiotherapists, counsellors, therapists, music teachers, yoga instructors, physicians, hair dressers, and so much more. Recent events have added to the trauma burden of so many people. Can you help? Birth Trauma Ontario offers a partnership with trauma-informed professionals so you can advertise your services an...d we can connect more clients with more professionals who can help. Contact us today for more information: [email protected] #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #midwives #midwifery #doula #physiotherapist #counsellor #counselling #therapist #traumainformedtherapy #hairdresser #massagetherapy #yoga #childbirtheducation #childbirtheducator #medicaladvocate

A recent survey of 222 White medical students and residents showed that 50% of them endorsed at least one myth about the physiological differences between Black... people and White people i.e. Black peoples nerve endings are less sensitive so they are less susceptible to pain. This makes them less likely to recommend appropriate treatments. One third of these DOCTORS believed that Black skin is just thicker than White skin. Racial biases that people take with them to their jobs everyday continue to harm Blacks in frightening ways all over this country. *National Academy of Sciences

Adverse experiences, especially in childhood, are known to contribute to many health challenges. Many of these survivors have learnt behaviours that seem mal-adaptive. A trauma-informed approach recognises that many of these adaptive behaviours actually kept the survivor alive through very difficult times. A trauma-informed care provider recognises the signs of trauma, understands its impact, and builds a supportive relationship that fosters resilience and recovery. Trauma-...informed care is a life-saving skill that is as important as knowing CPR. #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #pregnancy #highriskpregnancy #adversechildhoodexperiences #obresident #midwife #doula #obnurse #obstetrician #obstetrics #laboranddelivery #laboranddeliverynurse #obgyn

Trauma informed care is as much a life saving skill as CPR. Every person who works with birthing clients needs to have these skills.

As various services are reopening, they are implementing new rules for treating clients. Some of these new rules may include signing a waiver agreeing to statements that may not be true, violate the clients conscience, or come with coercion or threats. They may include the use of sanitisers that have health risks or pose an allergic threat to the client. They may include the use of masks for the client, which can exacerbate anxiety and escalate symptoms of trauma. They may p...revent the client from bringing an advocate or support person. As the lockdown eases, people with trauma may still be in a personal traumatic lockdown that prevents them from accessing needed services. Conversations are required amongst complementary and conventional health care providers to ensure people who need their services can safely do so. Its not always about a virus. #birthtrauma #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #complementarymedicine #complementarytherapies #alternativemedicine

Be quiet and man up: a qualitative questionnaire study into fathers who witnessed their Partners birth trauma (2020) Once again, we see that both partners are generally prepared for the process and experience of birth. What they are not prepared for is how we do birth in our provider-centric technocratic model. Fathers, like mothers, report loss of autonomy, loss of control, lack of information, and lack of support as significant factors in the traumatic experience. Trauma-i...nformed care is critical not only for the birthing client, but for partners as well. https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com//s12884-0

For parents that are considering an alternative to hospital birth during these times, here's some scientific information to help you make an informed choice.

The new trend in excusing substandard care is to say that the birth plan isnt for the care team, its just for parents to learn more about birth and themselves so they have a better idea of what the medical pundits plan to do to them during their assembly-line, drive-through, everyone-gets-whats-on-the-menu service. Poppycock!!! The birth plan is an important tool for communicating with the care team. Its often a trauma narrative. It provides important information if they ...have the trauma-informed skills to understand it. The birth plan doesnt have to be some cute pictogram that relieves the care team of having a legally required informed choice conversation. It isnt supposed to be the most colourful, simplest, funniest, most adorable, cookies-included document that the team might, maybe, possibly, please-with-a-cherry-on-top condescend to glance at piece of fluff. Just because the obstetrical industry is profoundly resistant to evidence-based, culturally-competent, and trauma-informed care does not mean that parents should stop requiring better services. Its not a simple preferences list. Its a document that outlines pertinent medical, cultural, and historical information. Its a document that provides consent or refusal according to the law. Its never been more critical to write down your information, trauma-narrative, and informed consent/refusal in a birth plan than ever. Without adequate support, clients are more vulnerable than ever to the wheels of the birth industry that churns out trauma and PTSD like its a party favour. #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #birthplans #obstetrics #obgyn #obgynresident #obnurse #midwife #studentmidwife #doula #hospitalbirth #covid19 #covidbirth #birthtrauma #obstetricviolence

If we collected a buck or two from everyone who has contacted us over the years that were reeling, feeling violated, or felt they'd been raped by a vaginal exam in labour, we'd be hosting conferences for free! The vaginal exam is a crucial and integral part of the technocratic model of birth. It ensures the person with the gloves is the one with the power. It ensures the wheels of the birth-machine are running on track. And it gives a false sense of security to the provider. ...It does nothing for the client. Why don't traditional birth attendants do vaginal exams? Because the medical industry has managed to gain legal ownership of pregnant vaginas and no one but their own can penetrate their domain. But really, it's because they're offensive, unnecessary, rude, disrupt labour, introduce infection, and displace power from the client to the one with the gloves. https://billieharrigan.com//3//why-i-dont-do-vaginal-exams

Breech birth skills are a set of skills like any other skill set. It's the same thing as learning how to do CPR, or how to bake bread, or how to crochet a scarf. ANYONE CAN LEARN THEM. Frankly, because birth is unpredictable, the kid who makes your sandwich at the local deli should have breech birth skills, the person who cuts hair should have breech birth skills, your grandmother should have breech birth skills. It makes them a more useful human. The cult-like grip this und...er-trained industry has on humanity is nonsense. https://birthsmalltalk.com//why-its-not-ok-to-say-i-dont-/

Does the Medicalization of Birth Harm Mothers? ~ yes Does appropriate medical care help mothers? Yes. But only when there is a medical need and the care is appropriate. And that's not what's happening today.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNfsnDKnVsQ&feature=youtu.be

Forced supine delivery .... that is the mother has no choice but to birth on her back due to the limited skills of the attending physician, is being called "the most widespread, accepted and unrecognised form of torture of women today." Torture. That's a strong word and it comes from a highly published and respected researcher and midwifery educator, Hannah Dahlen.... 400 years ago, a voyeuristic King Louis XIV had his women lie down so he could watch the baby emerge from her vagina from behind a curtain. Enter the male-midwife, who assumed the same control and power over birthing women. Obstetrics is the heritage of the original male-midwife (barber surgeon) and here we are 400 years into the profession and women are STILL on their backs. I mean there are slow-to-progress disciplines but this is ridiculous. On their back births increases pain, reduces blood flow back to the mother's heart, reduces blood flow to the uterus and placenta, reduces pelvic size, goes against gravity, is more painful, increases need for epidural, and increases tearing. But not to worry. Your doctor IS trained in how to respond to the problems their lack of training causes. Obstetrics needs an overhaul to bring it in line with good science and good old common sense. Demand better or choose differently until the economic hit on the industry ignites some much-needed updates. https://www.herfamily.ie//midwife-argues-making-women-give

Obstetric violence is any mistreatment of the obstetric patient/client. It doesn't matter who does the mistreating. For those who have a hospital birth, about 28% will be mistreated. This rises to about 80% if the client has a difference of opinion with the clinician. Respectful care requires the ability to accept that the client may not agree with them. That's not part of their training. Obstetric abuse is so pervasive that very few maternity providers know how to deliver tr...auma-informed services. It was never taught to them. It's not part of their education, skills development, or culture. A global pandemic will not change this. Without adequate training, maternity providers will continue to deliver the same quality of service that leaves 1 in 3 of their clients traumatised and 1 in 8 with postpartum PTSD. Demanding that clinicians become trauma-informed before you agree to access their services would drive the necessary change. With hospital pandemic measures in place, clients will not have access to the full range of support needed to help mitigate the kind of obstetric services that leaves the client with trauma. Early inductions to get-in-and-get-out is a foolish misuse of obstetrics that puts mothers and babies at unacceptable risk. Options to reduce your risk of mistreatment during pandemic measures: Out-of-hospital birth is a safe(r) option for most women. It will require working through our culture of birth-fright and learning the basics of safe birth, but there are many knowledgeable people who can help with that. If you go to a hospital, hiring a virtual doula can help. You can stay connected to your doula through smart phone technology. Stay connected to loved ones through technology and ask them to advocate for you as labour advances. Work with your one support person to ensure they know when maternity care has become mistreatment - lack of consent, lack of privacy, insults, shouting, pinching, forced vaginal exams, not respecting the client's "no", racism, fat-shaming, slut-shaming, the "dead baby" threat, threats of calling child apprehension services, or refusing to provide service if the client disagrees or doesn't acquiesce. You have the legal right to decline anything or revoke consent at any time for any reason. You have the legal right to not show up or to leave. Stay safe, my friends. https://www.todaysparent.com//giving-b/obstetric-violence/

A pandemic necessitates some radical public health measures. Hospitals are preparing for an influx of patients that will need advanced covid-19-related medical care. They are anticipating caseload overflow, crowding, staff shortages, and cross-infection. Denying access to support is one strategy that most impacts birthing clients. It also places the client at increased risk for abuse and birth trauma. The hospitals focus is on managing a public health crisis. Their focus is... not on whether or not birthing clients feel cared for and supported. It never has been! Rampant human rights violations, loss of autonomy and obstetric abuse throughout the world, including right here, right now, have proven that they dont have the education or the skills to provide trauma-informed care. A health pandemic wont change that. Whether you plan to birth in a hospital and need additional strategies to make the birth safer, or are considering switching to a community-based birth, we can help with your planning. You can reach us at [email protected]. #birthtrauma #covid19 #covid #coronavirus #obstetrics #obnurse #midwife #doula #obgyn #obresident #traumainformed #traumainformedcare #homebirth #safebirth #freebirth #naturalbirth #traditionalbirthattendant #traditionalbirthcompanion