One of the ways that I help families is by sharing what I know about birth and how important it is to the whole family. You may have a concept of birth trauma as it relates to the mother. Sometimes an unexpected birth intervention or outcome can have lasting effects on a woman’s emotional well-being, her ability to bond with her baby and her desire for more children.
And sometimes a birth affects the baby – whether or not mom was also distressed during the labor and birth. Babies can remember what happens to them during birth, and even during the pregnancy. Not only are they aware of events such as birth, but they seem to be very sensitive to the thoughts and emotions of the people around them, both prenatally and during labor and birth and beyond.
How does this work?
Memory is usually thought of as an intellectual mechanism…residing in the brain. But if babies’ brains are not fully developed yet, how do they remember? They don’t remember through ways we expect. When emotions and physical events occur, they are transmitted through chemicals and carried through the body in the cells. In this way, it is through cellular memory that we can hold onto events and feelings that impacted us even before we were born.
During gestation, our brains are growing very rapidly. If there is chronic stress producing chemicals in the mother’s body, the prenatal baby’s brain grows and adapts to that stress, which later affects how he or she relates to himself, his emotions, and the world. Similarly, painful, frightening and invasive birth experiences can create a strong imprint in the baby’s psyche. It is during these early experiences that we are developing our core beliefs about ourselves, deciding what the world is like and how we fit into it.
Sometimes the experiences prenatally are layered with events during the birth to make those beliefs stronger and result in trauma, when the newborn has no way to cope with the amount of distress.
How can you determine if your baby experienced birth trauma and is struggling with it?
Signs your baby may have some stress:
- crying for more than an hour a day for “no reason.”
- sleeping issues – either difficulty to wake or unable to settle down
- feeding difficulties – does not want to nurse or needs to constantly nurse
- allergies
- seems “angry” a lot
- cries out of proportion to a routine event such as bathing, or riding in the car seat
Your baby might have experienced birth/prenatal trauma if:
- there were any obstetrical interventions during the birth such as forceps, vacuum extraction, drugs/pain medications, induction or Cesaerian Section.
- your baby was not wanted
- your baby was adopted
- if there was a separation from mom immediately after the birth
- mom was chronically experiencing stressful emotions due to uncontrollable life situations
- mom and dad were having relationship difficulties during the pregnancy
- if mom and/or dad have unresolved personal issues originating in their own childhood
If you recognize you or your baby in the above lists, and feel compelled to find out more, please call me at 509-387-1083 or email me to set up your 20-30 minute free consultation and we can disucss what’s going on for your and/or your baby, and if I might be able to help you. Usually whatever is going on is simple and elegant to resolve, and its never your fault.