Birth Trauma Among Working Women: An Exploratory Study

Problem: Precipitating aspects of birth related trauma has been evidently playing a role in the Postpartum PTSD. Background: Nearly 4% women go through Postpartum PTSD after birth. Women respond to incidents related to birth with extreme distress, helplessness or awfulness. Questions: Is birth trauma or fear of death perceived among working mothers during maternity or child birth? Aim: This study aims to understand the experience of birth trauma or birth associated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in working woman in Indian population. Methods: In a non-experimental quantitative research design, women who had their baby within 2, 3, 4 and 5 years were recruited using purposive sampling to identify trauma experienced during maternity and child birth through City birth trauma scale. Findings: There is no significant difference in fear of death during child birth among working mothers. There was significant difference in Birth trauma among working mothers. Discussion: High levels vigilance to precautionary measures to not to contract the COVID-19 virus in the hospital setting lead to higher distress among mothers (Liu et al. in Arch Gynecol Obstet 306(3), 687–697, 2021). Though PTSD symptoms were slightly higher in the participants, Birth related PTSD symptoms were not highly significant in the participant (Basu et al. in PLoS ONE 16, 2021). Conclusion: Fear of death or the reminiscence of the child birth experience was not differing among working women even with varied duration after child birth.