Birth Reflections

We will offer you a one-off, one-to-one session with an experienced professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA). The session will last approximately an hour. During the session, the PMA will go through your maternity care record with you, step-by-step, explaining what happened and why. You may also wish to give us feedback during your session, to help us improve our maternity services. You are welcome to bring someone with you for support. This may be your partner, a close family member or a friend. They do not need to have been your birth partner.

Spending time reflecting on the birth of your baby may make you feel very emotional. Although it is important to talk to your Midwife or a PMA about how you are feeling, it is also important that you are aware that the birth reflections service is not a counselling service.

If you feel you would benefit from specialist mental health support / on-going counselling and support, please see the links at the end of this factsheet or ask your midwife, health visitor, GP or PMA for more information.

Birth reflections NHS is available for you and your birth partner if you have given birth under the care of Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust or Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.

Birth trauma is a shorthand term to describe symptoms of distress you might experience after having gone through, or witnessed, a traumatic birth. In some cases, these symptoms can be enough for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Research shows that about 4-5% of women experience PTSD after birth – about 25,000-30,000 a year in the UK. Many more women experience some trauma symptoms, such as intense anxiety or flashbacks, but not enough for a PTSD diagnosis. We use “birth trauma” for all these cases. 

Birth partners can also develop PTSD from witnessing a traumatic birth. Research suggests that about 1% of dads or partners develop PTSD after seeing their partner go through traumatic birth – and we support dads and partners too.

Your feelings about your birth are completely valid. It might be just one aspect of your birth experience that’s playing on your mind and causing you to be unexpectedly thoughtful, or you might feel traumatised by the whole experience.

If you think you might be suffering from birth trauma, there is support available for you.

As part of your postnatal care package, every woman will be offered space to reflect on their pregnancy, birth and postnatal experience with their midwife. For lots of people this will provide the help and support needed but for some people additional support might be helpful.  You can be referred to the Professional Midwifery Advocates who will help you to find the right help.