Birth Trauma: Part 3 of 3
We now join Anne Marie McKinley (a Midwife and Birth Trauma Specialist at Afterthoughts NI) for the final part of this sub-series and take a look at various trauma therapies available to both mums and dads.
Which Therapeutic Approach?
When either parent attend counselling in pregnancy, or post birth, several pathways may open up. If a woman is searching for a therapist herself, there are a number of things that may not be immediately obvious.
Therapy or counselling is often known to first time seekers through TV or film representations of how therapy works, or through reports from friends and family. Entering the perinatal timescale may also be the only space in the next number of years where parents can freely allocate time to heal old emotional wounds, deal with anxiety or depression, and come to terms with the journey of birth which may, for them, have been less than they had hoped and dreamed. It can be hard to prioritise self-care later on when there are little ones around your feet. [Read more…]