The psychology behind developing PTSD is complicated, but it frequently has a lot to do with expectations. “What looks like a normal labor and delivery to the outsider can be experienced as traumatic to her.” An experience that may not be a big deal to some women may be traumatic for others, Zimmerman explains: Other times, it can come during labor and delivery: When a newborn has a medical problem, as Sarah’s did, or when a woman feels coerced into undergoing invasive procedures during the birthing process. The traumatic experience can come before or during pregnancy, like a bad reaction to fertility treatment or severe morning sickness, explains Jennifer Zimmerman, the cofounder of Solace for Mothers, an organization that helps women to emotionally heal after traumatic childbirths. Mothers who suffer from PTSD often end up structuring their lives around their disorder, doing everything they can to avoid triggers that remind them of their trauma. Postpartum PTSD sufferers like Sarah experience typical PTSD symptoms like hyper-vigilance, intrusive memories, flashbacks, severe emotional distress, irritability, trouble sleeping, and nightmares, explains Anastasia Pollock, a therapist who specializes in treating trauma. Her condition is more similar to the PTSD experienced by veterans than it is to postpartum depression. Sometimes, she’d burst out crying in public. The experience took a psychological toll: For months after the birth, Sarah would lie awake at night, suffering through flashbacks of the experience. In 2014, Sarah had a traumatic birth, in which her firstborn daughter was born prematurely and had to go to the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU). Postpartum depression is also unique to new mothers, but any traumatic experience can bring on PTSD. Instead, they most commonly deal with things like sadness, trouble concentrating, difficulty finding joy in activities they once enjoyed, and difficulty bonding with their infants. Many people, including doctors, confuse postpartum PTSD with postpartum depression, even though the two disorders are quite different: Mothers with postpartum depression generally don’t suffer from the intrusive memories and flashbacks that plague PTSD sufferers. Sarah, a 28-year-old mother from Nebraska, suffers from postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder. What she has instead are memories that continue to haunt her. But she doesn’t have her own postcard-perfect photo like that, capturing the first moments of a new family’s joy. It’s also not that she envies their motherhood Sarah has her own healthy baby girl. Whenever Sarah sees a Facebook post of a smiling friend holding a newborn baby, she breaks down.
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