Can My Ptsd Be Transferred to My Unborn Baby

Faculty Q&A

Josie Granner, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan Schoolhouse of Nursing, studies the childbearing year for new parents who are survivors of trauma and post-traumatic stress.

Julia Seng

Granner recently co-authored a written report with Julia Seng, professor of nursing, that uses theories of mail-traumatic stress disorder to help educate perinatal clinicians on how to address trauma in their patients. Here, she discusses pregnancy trauma exposure, who'due south at risk and why it'southward so of import to bonding with your baby to recognize pregnancy trauma.

Who is most at risk for pregnancy trauma exposure?

People who experience trauma earlier in life are more likely to experience trauma during pregnancy. Trauma exposures that are especially salient to the childbearing yr include babyhood maltreatment or agin childhood experiences, previous traumatic birth or loss, prior medical or sexual trauma and discriminatory or caitiff care. In addition, rates of PTSD are more than than three times higher in lower resource, urban settings where the population is predominantly Black, than in the general female population.

The additional cost of trauma from historic human being rights violations, current bigotry, microaggressions, othering and minority stress likely adds to the cumulative trauma burden experienced by marginalized groups. Race-based structural inequities in access to care and rubber mean that many minority patients from marginalized groups may also have fewer resources with which to address their trauma-related needs.

How tin trauma impact patients during pregnancy, childbirth and after?

The childbearing twelvemonth can exist difficult for trauma survivors, particularly if the trauma was perpetrated by another person, equally in abuse, fail, sexual assault, household dysfunction, etc. PTSD is the most prominent long-term result of trauma, though it's mutual for survivors of trauma to also experience depression and anxiety.

Many trauma survivors aren't diagnosed with those mental health conditions, merely their trauma may however touch on them. Pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting can be a time when post-traumatic symptoms actually become worse. That's considering the childbearing year has then many triggers or reminders of past trauma that make a person feel like the trauma is happening once again. Other trauma survivors don't experience any post-traumatic reactions, but still utilise the time in pregnancy to recollect most how they want to parent differently than they were raised and go on their child safety.

1 case of a trigger during pregnancy is when the positioning and process of vaginal exams reminds a person of a sexual assault. Another common example is when significant trauma survivors perceive their healthcare providers equally dismissive, pressuring, or uncaring. That can remind them of feelings of vulnerability and helplessness they had equally a kid.

When past trauma was sexual or if it was perpetrated by a caregiver, memories and feelings from those experiences can come up again during pregnancy, birth and early parenting.

Do most patients realize that previous trauma could impact their childbirth experience?

No, for a couple of reasons. First, every trauma survivor is at a different place in their recovery. A 20-year-old pregnant woman who survived rape in higher hasn't had much time to procedure the incident. Those who are new in their recovery journeying don't ever have the words or the frameworks to explain, even to themselves, how their trauma affects them.

In dissimilarity, other survivors may feel they've worked through their trauma. While that can be the case, many people's PTSD really gets worse in the childbearing year, even if it didn't touch on them earlier.

A third reason is that ane of the characteristics of PTSD is avoidance. Many survivors of trauma altitude themselves from the emotions associated with a traumatic event, such as fearfulness, helplessness, shame, acrimony or guilt, and seek to avoid reminders that could trigger those emotions.

Tin can trauma survivors be retraumatized during this time, and can this impact parenting?

Absolutely. Common triggers in perinatal care include unwelcome impact or body positioning, feelings of fearfulness or dread, dynamics of vulnerability, being disrespected and not being in control. During childbirth, some people answer to these triggers by dissociating, where thoughts, feelings, memories, sense of the earth or sense of self are disconnected. Some describe this equally out-of-body feel. To others it tin feel like what's happening isn't real, like watching a movie or a play.

Those who reply to triggers past dissociating are more likely to have PTSD later the birth, postpartum depression and impaired bonding with their baby. That's why it'due south so important to talk over how trauma affects the childbearing year, and then survivors get necessary support.

Everyone gets wearied and overwhelmed after childbirth, simply some experience postpartum depression or PTSD that actually upends their life. These tin can make bonding with a baby more difficult. In the first year or so of life, bonding between caregivers and infants is critical, and imparied bonding can negatively impact a child throughout life.

It sounds similar many people don't realize they've experienced trauma and don't understand the negative feelings around what is supposed to exist an incredibly positive event. How might trauma manifest itself in these patients?

Experiences of trauma, how information technology affects people and how that manifests during the childbearing year is very about unique to the individual experiencing it. However, in that location are some helpful frameworks to assist usa make sense of post-traumatic stress. One way to think about it is that people have a couple of different systems that become activated in different circumstances. One system helps them get through daily life, when they don't feel threatened. The process of labor and delivery works all-time if this arrangement is active, because some of the same hormones, similar oxytocin, are involved.

Some other system gets activated when people feel threatened. That can crusade them to take a 'fight or flight' reaction, where they experience a rush of energy to their muscles, their blood pressure level, pulse and charge per unit of animate get up, and they might feel agape, broken-hearted or angry. Another reaction that can happen when people feel threatened is 'freeze or faint.' Dissociation is one example of a freeze or faint reaction, where the trunk goes into a less active state and the mind 'checks out' for a while.

In any case (fight, flight, freeze or faint), having a trauma reaction makes it hard to think clearly, connect with others, communicate what you need and mindfully process what is happening. When a trauma survivor is reminded of their trauma by a trigger, they sometimes take one of these reactions even when they are not in danger. The childbearing yr often has many more triggers than other times in life, which is probably why postal service-traumatic stress often gets worse at that time.

How might a trauma informed visit expect?

A visit with a trauma-informed clinician would exit you lot feeling safe, heard and respected. Some trauma-informed clinicians might directly ask yous if you have had whatever experiences that might impact your visit. If they don't ask and you bring information technology up, a trauma-informed clinician would affirm you, give time and space for the give-and-take, and listen advisedly.

They might ask you some follow-up questions, like "What kinds of things make yous feel dangerous, and how can I help avoid that?" or "What support do you have during this time, and tin can I aid connect you with more resources?" or "What practise you lot like to do when you lot feel triggered? What helps you come up back to feeling safety?"

A trauma-informed clinician would ask for permission before touching you, and permit you know what they are going to do before they do it. If a trigger came upward during your visit, and suddenly you lot had a fight, flight, freeze or faint reaction, a trauma-informed clinician would recognize what was happening. They would immediately stop what they were doing and perchance even take a step back. They would go out infinite for you to process your emotions and enquire y'all what they could practise to help.

A trauma-informed clinician likewise tries to be enlightened of cultural, celebrated and gender issues. They would be open up to y'all sharing how your identities touch your interactions with the health care organisation and would respond in a supportive manner. At the end of your visit with a trauma-informed clinician, y'all would experience like yous are the ane in charge of what happens to your body and that they are there to help you meet your goals and stay rubber.

More information:

• Study: Using Theories of Posttraumatic Stress to Inform Perinatal Care Clinician Responses to Trauma Reactions

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Source: https://news.umich.edu/previous-trauma-can-impact-expectant-mothers-during-pregnancy-and-beyond/