Abstract
Background: High numbers of women experience a traumatic birth, which can lead to childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) onset, and negative and pervasive impacts for women, infants, and families. Policies, suitable service provision, and training are needed to identify and treat psychological morbidity following a traumatic birth experience, but currently there is little insight into whether and what is provided in different contexts. The aim of this knowledge mapping exercise was to map policy, service and training provision for women following a traumatic birth experience in different European countries. Methods: A survey was distributed as part of the COST Action “Perinatal mental health and birth-related trauma: Maximizing best practice and optimal outcomes”. Questions were designed to capture ‘country level data’; ‘care provision’ (i.e., national policies or guidelines for the screening, treatment and/or prevention of a traumatic birth, service provision), and nationally mandated pre-registration and post-registration ‘training’ for maternity professionals. Results: Eighteen countries participated. Only one country (the Netherlands) had national policies regarding the screening, treatment, and prevention of a traumatic birth experience/CB-PTSD. Service provision was provided formally in six countries (33%), or informally in the majority (78%). In almost all countries (89%), women could be referred to specialist perinatal or mental health services. Services tended to be provided by midwives, although some multidisciplinary practice was apparent. Seven (39%) of the countries offered ‘a few hours’ professional/pre-registration training but none offered nationally mandated post-registration training. Conclusions: A traumatic birth experience is a key public health concern. Evidence highlights important gaps regarding formalized care provision and training for care providers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | BMC Health Services Research |
| Early online date | 06 Nov 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Early online date - 06 Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Co-Authors COST Afterbirth Consortium: Wilson de Abreu (; [email protected]), Valérie Avignon (Woman-Mother-Child Department, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; valerie.avignon@chuv), Barbara Baranowska ([email protected]), Pelin Dıkmen ([email protected]), Wissam El Hage ([email protected]), Yvonne Fontein-Kuipers ([email protected]), Susan Garthus-Niegel ([email protected]), Gözde Gökçe ([email protected]), Ernesto Gonzalez Mesa ([email protected]), Eleni Hadjigeorgiou ([email protected]), Maria Healy ([email protected]), Figen Inci ([email protected]), Ljiljana Jelicic ([email protected]), Inga Karlsdóttir ([email protected]), Joan Lalor ([email protected]), Patricia Leahy ([email protected]), Julia Leinweber ([email protected]), Sylvia Murphy ([email protected]), Ursula Nagle ([email protected]), Jenny Patterson ([email protected]), Jessica Pehlke-Milde ([email protected]), Mirjana Sovilj ([email protected]), Claire Stramrood ([email protected]), Anastasia Topalidou ([email protected]), Marysia Wegrzynowska ([email protected]),Keywords
- traumatic birth
- services
- policy
- education
- training
- survey
Access to Document
- Policy, service, and training provision for women following a traumatic birth: an international knowledge mapping exercise
Copyright 2021 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.