A call for your experiences – the impact of birth trauma and beyond

So this week’s blog is a little bit different. It’s an appeal more than anything – an appeal to you to share your experiences and your journeys with me. Because I’m starting a new project.

This is the first stage of it, initial research for a book on birth trauma, healing and women’s power that will be a focus for me in 2013. Let me explain a little further.

 

 

If you can’t see the video above, you can watch it here.

I want this book to be made of women’s voices (and men’s as well). I want it to be a place where the unspoken is spoken clearly and openly. I want it to be a book that honours the sacredness of each birth journey, and each path to healing. I want it to be a book that opens doorways for those who are feeling lost or alone so that they can find hope and a way forward that is suitable for them personally. Most of all, I want it to be a book that shows that it is possible to reclaim your personal power in birth and mothering following a difficult or traumatic experience in birth.

It’s a book in three parts that will explore:

*the impact of birth trauma (in the most inclusive sense, of the traumas and challenges women face in pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatally) – here I’m not just talking stories of what happened, but the impact of what happened on your life as a woman entering motherhood.

*paths to healing – again, real journeys and experiences, what it’s been like, what has worked and what hasn’t – where you are now and how you got there.

*reclaiming personal power in birth and motherhood – how you’ve done it, what you did in your subsequent births and mothering.

If you have something you would like to share with me – whatever stage you are at on your journey – I would like to hear from you.

Here are some of the people I would love to hear from:

*if you are a mother in the early stages of recovery following a difficult or traumatic experience,

*if you are a mother who experienced challenges some months or years ago,

*if you have done lots of work on your own healing

*if you did nothing at all to heal but just got on with it,

*if you have had subsequent challenging births,

*if you have had subsequent empowered births (of whatever kind or description)

*if you are a father or birth partner who experienced a traumatic or challenging birth

*if you are a doula, midwife or other supporter of women who has witnessed birth trauma that has impacted you in some way

*if you are a practitioner who works with women (and their partners/families) following traumatic or challenging birth experiences

All that you share will be kept confidential.

This initial round of research involves answering a questionnaire on-line. Following from this,  I will be meeting people in person (in Durham, London and possibly other locations)  and over Skype in the coming months.

Here’s how to participate:

Mothers Start Here

Fathers / Partners Start Here

Doulas / Midwives / Nurses (and others working with women in labour) Start Here

Practioners Start Here

If you fit into more than one of these categories and have different experiences to share, you can do so by responding in each category.