women’s stories: the evolution of a birth trauma support group robyn wall & julie chalmers...
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Women’s Stories: The Evolution of a Birth Trauma Support Group
Robyn Wall & Julie Chalmers
Women Youth & Children Community Health ProgramsSocial Work Service
Reasons parents may be referred to our service
• Difficulties bonding with their baby• Coping with mental health issues • Adjustment to being a parent• Relationship issues (stress, breakdown, change)• Concerns about family relationships• Feeling isolated from family, friends and community
Reasons parents may be referred to our service
• Unresolved childhood trauma that is impacting on parenting or being triggered by parenting
• Learning to parent in the absence of any positive role models for parenting
• Coping after a difficult childbirth experience or birth trauma
The Birth Trauma Support Group
Creating the Birth Trauma Support Group
Noticed an increase of women who talked about having “difficult births” and found a significant proportion of these women were experiencing symptoms of trauma
Clients felt alone, unprepared and uninformed about what they were experiencing
Creating the Birth Trauma Support Group
Symptoms of trauma include– Avoidance of triggers or reminders of birth– Flashbacks – Nightmares– Hyper-vigilance– Preoccupation with details/specific aspects of the
birth
Creating the Birth Trauma Support Group
Clients felt alone, unprepared and uninformed about what they were experiencing
Impacts of Birth Trauma
What the research told us
1. Literature shows that up to 30% of women experience some symptoms of trauma as a result of their childbirth experience (Beck, 2010, Gamble et al, 2005).Up to 45% of women described the birth as ‘deeply distressing’
Incidence of Birth Trauma encountered by the Service
What the research told us
2. Research indicates that group work could be beneficial for women with birth trauma.
3. The Birth Trauma Support Group may well be the first of its kind.
Originally created as part of a QI project
Aims: 1. To increase women’s understanding
of birth trauma and its effects2. To reduce feelings of isolation in this
experience
Developing the Birth Trauma Support Group
Group Outline Began as a psycho-educational group with one 3
hour session exploring• Myths and facts about childbirth • Defining Birth trauma and its impacts on parents• Developing Coping strategies• Increasing awareness of community resources
and supports
Touchstones for the Group
Drawing on the following theories for practice:• Principles of Adult Education• Trauma Informed Therapy• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy• Narrative Therapy• Mindfulness• The team’s own practice wisdom
A Learning Experience
The Birth Trauma Support Group
• Ran 8 groups in total• 4-8 Women and their babies in each group• 1 x 3 hr session held in various locations• 2 Facilitators for each session
What we learned from the women in the beginning
What we learned from the Women throughout the group
What we learned as a teamInviting feedback led to:
•Enhanced level of knowledge and skills about birth trauma
•Continued development of research and evaluation methods and group work
What we learned as a team
• Development of supporting resources
• Sharing of knowledge, skills and practice wisdom
• Worked closely with and were supported by other related services in the community
Challenges Experienced by the Team
A number of challenges were experienced including
• Meeting a variety of needs within the group•Different methods used for working in the group•Deciding who would benefit from group
Challenges Experienced by the Team
• Using the group to complement individual counselling, not replacing it.
• Time constraints in the preparation and delivery of group considering limited staff resources
• Competing client demands
Where to from here?
• Turning our focus towards sustainability
• In the process of submitting findings for publication
• Hope to improve the understanding of trauma experienced following childbirth within the Health Community
In Summary
Birth trauma is a common but poorly understood experience following childbirth
Through listening and responding to feedback and ongoing research, the team has been able to develop a program that is tailored to meet our client’s needs.
“We are not alone”Group 3 Participant