ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Glob. Women’s Health
Sec. Women's Mental Health
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2025.1584070
This article is part of the Research TopicMaternal PTSD, Complex Trauma, Post-traumatic Growth and Resiliency across Different CulturesView all articles
A qualitative description of birth trauma experiences from Ireland's first psychological birth trauma clinic
Provisionally accepted
- Health service executive, dublin, Ireland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Giving birth is a significant, life-transforming event that leaves lifelong memories. Although it is commonly seen as a beautiful and empowering experience, it can nevertheless also be traumatic and cause long-term psychological problems. Birth trauma, which arises from experiences during labour and birth, is gaining wider attention as a potential clinical issue. Our study aimed to categorize and describe qualitative data from women seeking assistance at a psychological birth trauma clinic.The study focused on analysing qualitative data from a psychological birth trauma clinic to understand women's perspectives and experiences. Thematic analysis was used for its flexibility and reliability. Out of 121 cases, 43 were excluded, resulting in 78 women included in the study.This study identified three main themes: personal failure, failure of others, and threat to life; along with several sub-themes. These themes and sub-themes reflected the perspectives and experiences of the women in the study regarding their birth trauma experiences.This study emphasises the need for proactive measures to address childbirth trauma effectively, and advocates for Trauma Informed Care which promotes woman-centred practises to improve quality of care and health service delivery.
Keywords: Birth trauma, perinatal, postnatal, triggers, PTSD
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bhagawan, Prets, Nagle, Duffy and Doyle. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Anisha Devi Bhagawan, Health service executive, dublin, Ireland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.