The Role of Preparation in Preventing Birth Trauma

In this episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast, we dive into the important topic of preventing birth trauma. Hilary Erickson, a nurse and mom to three, shares valuable insights on what birth trauma is and actionable steps you can take to minimize the risk. Learn how understanding the birth process, effective communication with healthcare providers, and setting realistic expectations can make a significant difference in your birth experience.

Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts

Big thanks to our sponsor The Online Prenatal Class for Couples — if you’re looking to get prepared it really is the easy way to do it!

Links for you:

Timestamps:

00:00 Birth trauma: deeply personal, varies between individuals.

04:45 Start communication early to prevent birth trauma.

07:36 Understand expectations, communicate effectively, learn from experts.

Keypoints:

• Introduction to the topic of preventing birth trauma.
• Emphasis on the dual responsibility of both providers and patients in preventing birth trauma.
• Explanation of birth trauma as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.
• Importance of understanding the normal processes and procedures during labor and delivery.
• Advocacy for learning effective communication with healthcare teams early in pregnancy.
• Encouragement to lower and manage expectations about labor, delivery, and postpartum periods.
• The significance of having realistic and correct expectations for the birth process.
• Promotion of the online prenatal class for couples as a resource to prepare for birth.
• Discussion about the prevalence of misrepresented birth experiences on social media and TV.
• Upcoming episodes on baby safety and the benefits of taking a hospital tour.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.000] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 253, we are talking about preventing birth trauma, so let’s untangle it.

[00:00:09.930] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the Pregnancy Nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:00:30.290] – Hilary Erickson

Before we get started, I want to be sure that you understand that birth trauma has to be fought on both fronts, right?

[00:00:45.300] – Hilary Erickson

Providers 100% need to do better. But as patients, we can do better as well. And because my podcast is focused more on patients than providers, I’m going to tell you some things that you can do to help prevent birth trauma. So I’m not putting this all on your shoulders, but I’m saying you can help it, so why not give it a try?

[00:01:03.430] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s episode is sponsored by the online prenatal class for couples. We’re going to talk more about how it prevents birth trauma, but it is one of the best things you can do to have a great birth.

[00:01:12.780] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, before we get started, what is birth trauma? It is a trigger word a lot of times on social media. People are talking about trauma in lots of different ways, not just pregnancy.

[00:01:23.330] – Hilary Erickson

But trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. So something that you experience that was just really disturbing to you. And it really varies. That’s the tricky thing about trauma.

[00:01:34.500] – Hilary Erickson

One person can have an event and not find it traumatic, and one person can have the same event and find it very traumatic. So it’s always hard when people are saying, I had a birth where everyone came in to adjust the fetal heart rate monitoring, and that was extremely traumatic, whereas other people will be like, That wasn’t traumatic at all. I was so glad that they were there to save my baby, I don’t understand what your problem is.

[00:01:54.810] – Hilary Erickson

So we have to give the okay that everyone experiences things in their own way, and some people will find things traumatic that other people won’t find traumatic, and that’s okay.

[00:02:03.370] – Hilary Erickson

And as we do that, we realize that lots of different things can cause birth trauma, right? Things we did not plan. We all are like, Okay, you coded during your labor. That would be very traumatic to come back from the brink of death. We all can say that. Although sometimes I see parents who are just so grateful and don’t end up being traumatized by stuff like that. And I’m like, wow, either you’re shoving a lot deep down inside or you’re amazing that you do different things.

[00:02:29.080] – Hilary Erickson

So, lots of different things can cause birth trauma. And I’m always wildly surprised about the things that end up causing birth trauma. So what are four things that you can do to help prevent birth trauma in your upcoming birth? We’re going to talk about those things now.

[00:02:43.010] – Hilary Erickson

So the first one is to understand what’s going to happen. Honestly, I will say that some people are traumatized by the admitting process, the fact that you are in pain, and they’re like, What’s your name? What’s your social security number? Or however they’re going to identify you, they find that traumatic. They’re like, I just want to get to my room.

[00:03:00.550] – Hilary Erickson

Whereas if you understand it, you realize that they have to get you in the system. We have to be able to chart on you. We have to be able to pull up your prenatal records. If you understand why we’re doing that, it’s not just like, We’re trying to bill you, and I have a whole thing on that in the online prenatal class for couples.

[00:03:16.780] – Hilary Erickson

But understanding why they’re doing those specific things a lot of times can help. I’m just talking about the admission to labor and delivery. I’m not even talking about those five nurses that run in when we see the heart rate go down.

[00:03:27.540] – Hilary Erickson

And that can feel traumatic if you don’t understand that that is an everyday occasion to almost every patient in labor and delivery, right? Now, if I was on Med Surge and five nurses come running in my room, that is unusual.

[00:03:39.540] – Hilary Erickson

But it’s not in labor and delivery. So understanding what’s going to happen, what things are very normal, why things are happening that are very normal can really help. That’s why the online prenatal class for couples covers 95 to 99 % of very normal things that will happen in labor and delivery. So you just understand them and you know what’s going on. You feel very confident.

[00:03:59.400] – Hilary Erickson

I call it the scary stack because one thing happens, like the lady admitting wants her social security number and you can’t remember it. That’s the first book in your scary Stack. And then the next thing is you can’t understand how to put the hospital gown on, but you want to wear it. The third thing is they can’t find the baby on the monitor for 2 seconds, and you find that very distressing. And you start holding all these books, which are really very normal books and could go in your backpack, but you’re holding them. I call it the scary Stack. So you can put a lot of those things down when you understand that all this is very normal and it doesn’t need to be traumatizing.

[00:04:31.310] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, the second one is learning to communicate with your healthcare team. And wherever you’re at in your pregnancy, this is something that you start today. If you have any questions in your office, you’re asking your provider. When they say, It’s time to get a blood work for anemia, you go, Oh, really? Why?

[00:04:47.810] – Hilary Erickson

Even though it’s just a standard of care, you learning to say, Oh, why are we getting that? Is there something wrong with me? You can start having these conversations with your provider instead of just going like, Okay, and not really having a clue as to why we do it.

[00:05:01.900] – Hilary Erickson

You’re starting these communication things early. That’s why I recommend bringing a birth plan early, because a lot of times it just starts this communication in a really easy way, even if it doesn’t really affect what care you get during your birth. It’s starting those open communication pathways, because when you feel forced into something, that’s one of the biggest trauma triggers, right?

[00:05:22.280] – Hilary Erickson

If you feel like you don’t have any control over the situation and you can’t affect any change, that is a trauma trigger for a lot of people. But when you learn to communicate, when you learn how to say, I don’t understand what’s going on, when you learn how to ask, Is this a real emergency, or do we have a second to talk through things? It really can help with birth trauma. So understanding how to communicate early on at your next prenatal appointment is so important.

[00:05:46.280] – Hilary Erickson

And quick reminder, it’s not just about communicating with your provider. It’s everyone that you meet, the ultrasound tech, the nurse in the office, or the MA in the office, all these different things. You’re just learning to communicate with them because I don’t know if you know this or not, but when you’re in labor, you’re actually going to see your doctor for very little of the amount of time that you’re having your baby. You’re mostly going to see a labor and delivery nurse.

[00:06:07.150] – Hilary Erickson

So learning to talk with providers who aren’t your doctor or midwife is an important skill. Keep it up, ladies.

[00:06:13.540] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, the next one is to lower your expectations or to not have false expectations. A lot of us think you’re going to go into the hospital, you’ll probably have the baby within an hour because that’s always how it happens on TV. When you go in and you find out that you’ve got a long time waiting in pain in the hospital, and then it also takes two hours to push out the baby, that can be really disheartening.

[00:06:35.900] – Hilary Erickson

So lowering your expectations of yourself, the fact that you haven’t experienced this type of pain before, and although you’d like to avoid an epidural, it’s okay if you want to get an epidural, or you thought you didn’t want to have an induction throughout your pregnancy, and then all of a sudden you get to 39 weeks and you’re like, I’m done. I want this baby out. It seems safe to do it.

[00:06:55.150] – Hilary Erickson

Lowering your expectations is such a good thing to do throughout your life. That is like, I should rename the podcast, Lower your expectations, but it doesn’t have anything to do with Pulling Curls, so I can’t. But I feel like I talk about that so often on this podcast. Lower the expectations.

[00:07:11.610] – Hilary Erickson

And then finally, you need to have correct expectations. Understanding what’s going to happen at birth is going to help you modify your expectations.

[00:07:17.680] – Hilary Erickson

And I see this, especially in postpartum. We always see these adorable pictures with a mom looking like she has makeup on and her hair doesn’t look like Simba, and she’s loving her baby because that’s the picture people want. They don’t want the picture of them sleepless, no makeup on, hair looks like Simba, they’re yelling at their partner. Just understanding expectations for labor, pregnancy, birth is so important.

[00:07:41.190] – Hilary Erickson

Those are the four things that I recommend to decreasing your birth trauma. Let’s review them one more time. Lowering and having adequate expectations or correct expectations, I should say. Communicating with your healthcare team well and understanding what’s going to go on during this process. Don’t letting the three deliveries that you’ve seen on social media or on TV make you think that that’s what’s going to happen in the hospital because every birth is different and you need to learn from an expert.

[00:08:06.580] – Hilary Erickson

So come join me in the online prenatal class for couples. It is the easy way to get prepared for birth, and we really do prepare you from bump to bassinet so that you’re completely ready and it only takes three hours. It is completely virtual, and you can do it whenever you want. So I would love to see you guys in there.

[00:08:21.930] – Hilary Erickson

And of course, I hope that as OB providers, we are working on our end to make birth less traumatic in general. But I hope you guys want to do the things on your part that can help prevent it as well.

[00:08:33.330] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned. Next week, we are talking with one of my good friends about baby safety. And then the week after that, we’re going to talk about why take a hospital tour. So stay tuned.

[00:08:42.120] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you liked today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

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