Birth Trauma - PTSD in the Postpartum (SOLD OUT)

Childbirth is a challenging and life-changing experience.  It is not always the joyful, empowering experience seen on mainstream and social media.  For a proportion of women, childbirth can lead to post-traumatic symptomatology resulting in significant maternal mental health issues and difficulties within the parent-infant relationship.  Postpartum PTSD may occur as a result of negative, life threatening experiences during birth.  Birth and pregnancy can also activate unprocessed prior-trauma.  

It is estimated that around 3 percent of women in community samples, and around 16 percent of women in at-risk samples develop PTSD after birth.  Treatment of traumatic symptomatology is important for women, their partners and their infants, with potential to disrupt the transmission of intergenerational mental health difficulties.  Given the current funding context, where there is a focus upon antenatal screening, this presentation will review risk factors associated with the development of postnatal PTSD.  The presentation will also provide an overview of current research in this area, discuss psychological intervention and evidence-based treatment for PTSD, as well as provide an overview of the possible implications for parent-infant relationships.   

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Dr Emma Symes has worked as a clinical psychologist for close to 20 years.  She works in private practice at the Centre for Clinical Psychology and provides supervision to other psychologists. Emma has a background in adult community mental health, and has also worked at the Tweddle Early Parenting Centre.  Emma was also a senior psychologist at the Royal Women's Hospital - Centre for Women's Mental Health, where she worked with women and infants during pregnancy, after birth and into the early postpartum.  Emma is also an accredited provider of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT for PTSD). 

Emma was invited by the APS to present a version of this presentation at the Unpacking Trauma Conference in Sept 2021.