Mikaelah Cash 23/07/2023 Mikaelah Cash 23/07/2023

Birth Trauma Awareness Week

It seems like there is nothing this experience hasn’t impacted on. Physically it took a long time to heal up post surgery, and I lost a lot of self confidence. The Pre Eclampsia made me gain a significant amount of weight, and I struggled to lose it with the trauma manifesting physically also. I felt disconnected from my body in many ways, like I had no ownership over it, it wasn’t really mine. Because I had had so many medical exams and felt so vulnerable, I separated myself from my body for a while, and told myself the birth was something that had happened to me, rather than something I did, like in a natural birth.

Mikaelah Cash 04/07/2023 Mikaelah Cash 04/07/2023

Danielle

“Working through each increased dose of oxytocin every 20 minutes, I remember the midwives on duty and the doctors walking in and just pausing for a moment by the door, not for me … but so that they could take a deep breath of the lavender and calm themselves during their busy shifts! “

Mikaelah Cash 02/05/2023 Mikaelah Cash 02/05/2023

Charlotte

“I’ve always known that I would have to have an Elective Caesarean as I have a health condition called Marfan’s Syndrome which affects all my connective tissue including the heart.”

Mikaelah Cash 11/04/2023 Mikaelah Cash 11/04/2023

Chelsea

“Pregnancy for me was not what I expected it to be at all, it was rough to say the very least, at 6 weeks I was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) and spent months in and out of after-hours and hospital on IV fluids and anti nausea. “

Mikaelah Cash 28/03/2023 Mikaelah Cash 28/03/2023

Bianca

"I was highly anxious. I was extremely invested in a hospital birth out of fear, and my trust in midwifery was sceptical at best...I ended up changing midwives. I like to think of this as me taking control of my journey and authoring my own story - something I would never have had the confidence to do had I not joined Authored”

Birth Collective 28/02/2023 Birth Collective 28/02/2023

Jess #2

I did my midwifery degree before having babies. And through this process and the many different types of births I have attended and facilitated – I knew that home was the best place for me. Everyone is different and some people don’t relax till they walk into those hospital doors. I’m not afraid of hospitals but the thought of going to the hospital in labour freaked me out much more than staying at home.