ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of key issues to help understand what childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is its prevalence and risk factors and the implications of a traumatic birth on women and others. It highlights how some women can experience post-traumatic growth following a traumatic birth. The work of Janoff-Bulman is illuminating as she considers that we generally hold beliefs and assumptions that we will not be subject to misfortune and that the world is 'meaningful', 'benevolent' and that we have positive 'self-worth'. The chapter offers an overview of a series of qualitative studies that illustrate some of the key impacts of a traumatic birth on these different population groups. It offers a framework of prevention and intervention that could be considered to prevent and protect against PTSD onset following childbirth. Women described the image of their brains having a video recorder in them with their traumatic births on automatic replay resulting in loop tracks in their brains.
