S3 Episode 3. The many faces of birth trauma: Severe pelvic floor birth injury and vaginal prolapse.

On paper, the birth of Amy’s first daughter was a traumatic experience. Amy experienced a forceps birth in theatre, a third degree tear, and a postpartum haemorrahge requiring a blood transfusion. Following this, she was in a wheelchair for five days, and couldn’t walk properly for weeks. But as Amy knows better than almost anyone else, it is not possible to identify a traumatic birth on paper. As the co-founder and CEO of the Australian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA), Amy understands that birth trauma has many different faces. The events and circumstances that can make a birth traumatic are different for everyone. For Amy, her personal experience of trauma was not related to the birth itself, but began 18 months after the birth of her daughter. Diagnosed with a severe pelvic organ prolapse, Amy found herself physically and mentally falling apart. Amy didn’t know a single other person living with prolapse, and felt stigmatised, isolated and alone. Amy’s sense of self worth, and her identity as a mother, spiralled into a dark place. In this special episode of Pregnancy Uncut, Amy shares her personal story of birth injury, how she recovered both physically and mentally, and how she was inspired to start ABTA to help others experiencing trauma and grief around birth.