ABSTRACT

Background

Evidence shows that traumatic childbirth can cause ongoing distress, often referred to as birth trauma. This can have an impact on parents and the couple relationship, and consequently identifying and supporting parents with birth trauma is important to practice.

Aim

To investigate the experiences of health-care practitioners from the United Kingdom (UK) in assessment for birth trauma, perceived occurrence of birth trauma and observed impact on parents and the couple relationship.

Methods

An online survey of UK health-care practitioners working with parents in the first postnatal year.

Results

A sample of 202 practitioners reported identifying birth trauma in 34.4% of mothers and 25.0% of partners. Assessment for birth trauma was only conducted for 50.3% of mothers and 25.9% of partners. The most observed symptoms were re-experiencing among mothers (87.1%) and avoidance among partners (50.9%). Birth trauma was perceived as impacting on the couple relationship for 29.8% of mothers and 26.9% of partners. Written responses provided more detailed observations of the impact of birth trauma.

Conclusion

Understanding how birth trauma may present differently in mothers and partners could support effective assessment. Once birth trauma is identified, parents require personalised support to help them cope with the impact.

中文翻译：

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医疗保健从业者对母亲和伴侣产伤的评估和观察

摘要

背景

有证据表明，创伤性分娩会导致持续的痛苦，通常被称为产伤。这会对父母和夫妻关系产生影响，因此识别和支持有产伤的父母对实践很重要。

目标

调查来自英国 (UK) 的医疗保健从业人员在评估产伤、产伤发生率以及观察到的对父母和夫妻关系的影响方面的经验。

方法

一项针对英国医疗保健从业者在出生后第一年与父母一起工作的在线调查。

结果

一份由 202 名从业者组成的样本报告称，34.4% 的母亲和 25.0% 的伴侣发现了产伤。仅对 50.3% 的母亲和 25.9% 的伴侣进行了产伤评估。观察到最多的症状是母亲的重新体验（87.1%）和伴侣的回避（50.9%）。29.8% 的母亲和 26.9% 的伴侣认为产伤影响了夫妻关系。书面答复提供了对产伤影响的更详细的观察。

结论

了解产伤在母亲和伴侣中的表现可能有何不同可以支持有效的评估。一旦确定了产伤，父母需要个性化的支持来帮助他们应对影响。