Birth Trauma Association
Founded and run by women who have experienced birth trauma, we are the only charity in the UK solely dedicated to supporting women and families who have experienced traumatic birth.
Our main role is to support parents who have been psychologically distressed by traumatic birth.
About 4-5% of women who give birth go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – that’s about 30,000 women a year in the UK. But many thousands more develop some symptoms of distress, such as flashbacks or anxiety, but not enough to qualify for a PTSD diagnosis. We support them too.
When a woman has trauma symptoms, those around her can be affected too, including her family and her partner. Living with someone who is deeply anxious, unhappy and on edge is not easy, and we recognise partners need support too. Some partners (about 1% according to research) even develop PTSD as a result of witnessing a traumatic birth.
Because of this, we offer support to partners as well as women.
As well as the formal support, we offer people the opportunity to receive expert advice from physiotherapists, doctors and lawyers. We do this mostly through online Q&As (for example, on Instagram), or online clinics over Zoom or Teams. We also have a lawyer on our board of experts who is able to help with queries about making a complaint or a medical negligence claim.