Re: [ozmidwifery] emotional reactions to cs

[Marilyn Kleidon]

ok Jo here is another study (funny/strange how many of these are european??): my excuse for ocd-ing on this: I am NOT acclimatising very well, I am soooooo hot. So I am sitting inside with my computer in an airconditioned room how SAD is that. this is it..I will try to turn off my computer and maybe go for a drive in my airconditioned car...what has become of me????     1: Zentralbl Gynakol 2001 Jan;123(1):42-7 Related Articles, Links [Psychologic effects of traumatic live deliveries] [Article in German] Pantlen A, Rohde A. Universitatsfrauenklinik Bonn. [EMAIL PROTECTED] OBJECTIVES: Traumatically experienced childbirth can lead to serious psychological disturbances postpartum. Dependent upon objective and subjective factors, some women may even develop the symptomatology of a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of a pilot study was the evaluation of the frequency of traumatically experienced childbirth, of the effects of these traumatic experiences and possible risk factors for the development of PTSD. STUDY DESIGN: 976 women, who had given birth at the Bonn University Women's Hospital during 1997/1998, were retrospectively questioned regarding their experiences with pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. 46 women, who described relevant psychological symptoms after childbirth, were personally interviewed. RESULTS: 424 women returned the completed questionnaire. 17.2% of the women reported anxiety postpartum, 9.4% depressive symptoms, 12% a mental re-experience of delivery within the first weeks postpartum, 3.8% were still suffering from these intrusions at the time of the study. In the first weeks after labor, nightmares were reported in 3.1%. In 4 cases, the full criteria for a PTSD were met. In 10 further cases, a subsyndromal form of this disorder was found. The case analysis showed that the development of PTSD symptoms was influenced by factors such as expectations, need for control, sense of shame and previous traumatic experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological symptoms postpartum were reported frequently. Traumatically experienced childbirth can be responsible for specific short-term or long-term symptoms. In individual cases, a PTSD can develop after a traumatic delivery with long-term negative consequences for the health and mental condition of the mother, the mother-child-relationship and the desire for further pregnancy. In such cases, a specific psychotherapeutic treatment is always necessary.     ----- Just a guess that the treatment would be more than one visit and NOT with an unknown, random midwife on the postnatal ward.   marilyn