THOUSANDS suffer from PTSD after experiencing difficult births, according to a new report.
Today, mothers tell Alex Lloyd and Kate Skelton how they were let down by poor maternity care.
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After more than 19 hours of excruciating contractions, dancer Kristina Rihanoff was relieved to finally have her daughter Mila in her arms.
But the former Strictly pro also felt devastated by a birth that was frightening and incredibly painful.
“It was a very long and exhausting labor because she had the cord tied around her neck,” recalls Kristina, 46, who is engaged to Mila’s father, retired rugby player Ben Cohen, 45.
“I spent hours pushing without relieving the pain and my body went into shock, I had a high temperature.
“The doctors said I might need a cesarean section, but she ended up being born with forceps.
Bleeding a lot
“I just wanted her to be safe and I was so happy she was, but the trauma came with what happened next.”
Kristina needed a small cut called an episiotomy to help deliver Mila in June 2016, which required stitches.
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“It was hot, I got run over and they didn’t heal well,” she says.
“I couldn’t sleep, I was in pain and I got an infection. But I felt like no one really wanted to help.
“It was emotionally difficult, I cried all the time.
“I wasn’t sure if the cord around Mila’s neck caused any long-term damage.
“Worrying about it kept me up at night when I really needed to rest.”
Unfortunately, Kristina’s story is not unique.
An estimated 30,000 women a year in the UK suffer such negative experiences giving birth that they develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
Others suffer life-changing injuries, postpartum depression or become too scared to have more children.
Conservative MP Theo Clarke was one of them.
After a “terrifying” 40-hour labor at Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire in August 2022, she underwent a two-hour operation without general anesthetic to repair a tear.
She spent a week recovering in hospital and the lack of aftercare spurred her to give an emotional speech to Parliament in October 2022.
It was the trigger for a landmark birth trauma inquiry earlier this year, which heard heartbreaking testimony from 1,300 women about being left lying on blood-soaked sheets, denied pain relief and feeling suicidal.
The findings were published yesterday with a cross-party committee of MPs calling for a review of maternity services, including the recruitment of more midwives, antenatal classes offered by all NHS trusts and universal access to maternal mental health services.
The report, called Listen To Mum, also recommends the installation of a new maternity care commissioner, separate six-week postnatal checks for all mothers, digitized health records and national access to Birth Reflections services, offering a safe space to discuss what happened.
Other measures include extending the time limit for childbirth-related medical negligence litigation from three to five years and tackling inequalities in maternity care for black and Asian women.
Theo, 38, MP for Stafford, says: “My birth experience opened my eyes.
“I spent 40 hours in labor, had a third-degree rupture, hemorrhaged and started bleeding a lot.
“I was rushed to the emergency room, separated from my daughter and the experience was extremely traumatizing.”
Theo, who accessed counseling through a perinatal mental health charity, says it was only after speaking in Parliament that he realized the scale of the problem.
She says: “It quickly became clear that there was a national and systemic problem with inadequate aftercare for mothers. It’s a real postcode lottery.”
Among those who gave evidence was Siri Ahir, 29, of Stourbridge, West Mids, who gave birth to her daughter Athena, with partner Ryan, 30, a senior buyer, eight months ago.
Siri, a counselor, was induced at 37 weeks because her baby was so small, but was left lying in her broken waters for eight hours and even scolded by a midwife for vomiting.
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She had an emergency C-section. “No one told us what was happening, we didn’t know if she would be okay,” she says. “After that, I felt pressure to breastfeed when I was sick, dizzy and couldn’t feel my legs.”
Siri took months to recover from the “horrendous” experience.
“It was difficult to bond and I have flashbacks to the birth,” she says.
“There was a lack of communication, a lack of care. I felt like an inconvenience.
“I’ve always wanted two children, but from my experience I won’t have another child, which is sad.”
Stacey Hewitt, 33, also spoke to MPs about her birth in March 2020, which left her with flashbacks after she lost more than four liters of blood.
‘I felt like a failure’
The Newcastle home stylist, who lives with her civil servant partner Dan, 34, had a high-risk pregnancy due to epilepsy and was a week overdue when she went to hospital for an induction.
She says: “I didn’t feel like they wanted me there and I found the midwives dismissive and condescending.”
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At one point, a doctor who was performing an internal examination on Stacey answered a phone call with the other hand.
Stacey was taken to the emergency room to deliver her baby using forceps, but suffered an injury and hemorrhaged.
She says: “I remember two people arguing about how much blood to give me. It was scary.
“After that, I had trouble sleeping and felt sick. Nobody came to help me take a shower.”
It took Stacey a long time to recognize that she suffered from PTSD.
She says: “I couldn’t stop thinking about the birth, my mental health would get worse. I felt like a failure.”
Stacey received counseling and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing to help deal with the trauma.
She says: “It wasn’t just my birth that caused the PTSD, it was the lack of aftercare in the postnatal ward.”
Dr Kim Thomas, CEO of the Birth Trauma Association and author of the report, hopes it will be a “wake-up call” for policymakers and the NHS.
She says: “Birth trauma affects the relationship with the partner, the ability to bond with the baby and, in many cases, the ability to work.”
Theo Clarke is encouraged that Secretary of State for Health Victoria Atkins and NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard say the report’s 12 proposals will be adopted in full.
But the change isn’t just about more money. “Partly it has to do with culture,” says Theo.
“After coming out of surgery, my daughter was screaming and when I pressed the bell for help, a nurse came in and said ‘it’s not my baby, it’s not my problem’. This is not acceptable.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
