birth trauma
Natal physical damage
Birth trauma refers to physical injury sustained by a newborn during delivery—bruising, bone fractures, nerve damage, or oxygen deprivation.
The term also covers psychological harm to the mother from a difficult or traumatic birthing experience: She's still processing the birth trauma from her emergency C-section.
In psychoanalytic theory, birth trauma is the shock of leaving the womb, proposed as a source of later anxiety.
- emotional dysregulationPoor control over feelings
- dissociationMental separation from surroundings
- flashbacksInvoluntary vivid memory episodes
- skull fractureBreak in head bone
- hypoxiaInsufficient tissue oxygenation
oxygen deprivation · PTSD · medical negligence · newborn · postpartum depression · healing journey · hemorrhage · cesarean · informed consent · labor · scalp · obstetrics · skull · hematoma · postpartum · complications · cord · contractions
- childbirthcontractions, labor, pushing, dilation, crowning
- pregnancy worriesmiscarriage, complications, preeclampsia, stillbirth, prenatal anxiety
- childhood traumaabuse, neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, ACEs
- infant ailmentsjaundice, respiratory distress, prematurity, apnea, hypoglycemia
- newborn complicationsrespiratory distress, jaundice, hypoglycemia, sepsis, apnea
- Perinatal Mental Healthpostpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis, baby blues, maternal anxiety