Birth Trauma Therapy
When Your Birth Experience Still Feels With You
You may have imagined that once your baby was healthy and home, the difficult parts of your birth would eventually fade.
But sometimes they don't.
You may find yourself replaying what happened, feeling anxious when you think about your birth, avoiding conversations about the experience, or experiencing a strong emotional or physical reaction when something reminds you of it.
Maybe your birth didn't go the way you expected. Maybe you felt frightened, powerless, dismissed, or out of control. Maybe there were medical complications, an emergency C-section, an unexpected intervention, a difficult recovery, or concerns about your baby's health.
Or maybe everything went “fine” medically, but you didn't feel fine afterward.
Birth trauma is not determined by how your experience looks to someone else. What matters is how the experience affected you.
At Ashley Sheff Counseling Services, we provide specialized therapy for women who are struggling to process a difficult or traumatic birth experience. Our approach is compassionate, trauma-informed, and focused on helping you feel more grounded and in control of your story.
In-person therapy is available in West Chester, PA, with virtual therapy available throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Florida.
What Can Birth Trauma Look Like?
Birth trauma can affect everyone differently. You may recognize yourself in some of these experiences:
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Replaying parts of your birth or feeling like you're back in the moment
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Feeling anxious, panicked, or overwhelmed when remembering what happened
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Avoiding conversations, places, medical appointments, or reminders related to your birth
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Feeling disconnected from your birth experience or having difficulty talking about it
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Feeling angry, betrayed, helpless, or out of control
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Experiencing guilt or wondering whether you “should have done something differently”
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Feeling anxious about becoming pregnant or giving birth again
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Feeling fearful about medical providers or future pregnancies
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Experiencing distress when hearing other people's birth stories
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Feeling like others don't understand why the experience continues to affect you
You may also find yourself thinking:
“Why can't I just move on?”
“Everyone keeps telling me that my baby is healthy, so why am I still struggling?”
“I know it's over, but my body doesn't seem to know that.”
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone—and you don't have to minimize what happened simply because the outcome was okay.
You Can Be Grateful for Your Baby and Still Struggle With Your Birth
One of the most difficult parts of birth trauma can be feeling like you don't have permission to be upset.
You may feel incredibly grateful that your baby is healthy while simultaneously feeling grief, anger, fear, or sadness about what happened to you.
Both things can be true.
You can love your baby and still feel traumatized by your birth.
You can be grateful for your medical team and still feel hurt by aspects of your care.
You can know that your providers did what they needed to do and still wish your experience had been different.
Therapy can provide a space where you don't have to choose between these experiences or explain why you “shouldn't” feel the way you do.
Processing Birth Trauma With EMDR
Sometimes knowing what happened isn't enough to feel better.
You may understand that the birth is over and that you and your baby are safe, but certain memories can continue to feel emotionally or physically present.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a trauma-focused therapy that can help you process distressing experiences so that they feel less overwhelming and less connected to the intense emotions, beliefs, or physical sensations you may still experience.
EMDR can be helpful when you're struggling with a specific birth memory, a series of difficult medical experiences, or the way your birth has affected how you think and feel about yourself, your body, motherhood, or future pregnancies.
Our clinicians are EMDRIA-trained and incorporate EMDR when it is clinically appropriate and when it aligns with your goals for therapy.
Learn More About EMDR Therapy →
Read our Blog Post on EMDR and How It Works -->
What We Work On in Birth Trauma Therapy
Therapy may involve processing the birth experience itself, as well as the ways it continues to affect you today.
Together, we may explore:
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What happened during your pregnancy, birth, or postpartum recovery
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Memories that continue to feel particularly distressing
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Feelings of fear, helplessness, guilt, anger, or grief
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Changes in how you feel about your body or yourself
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Anxiety surrounding medical care or future pregnancies
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How the experience has affected your relationship with your partner
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How your birth experience has influenced your transition into motherhood
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What you need in order to feel safer and more grounded moving forward
You will never be pressured to share more than you're ready to share. Therapy is a collaborative process, and we'll move at a pace that respects your needs and your nervous system.
You Don't Have to “Just Get Over It”
Your birth experience was significant because it happened to you.
You don't have to convince yourself that it wasn't that bad. You don't have to compare your experience to someone else's. And you don't have to wait until your symptoms become unbearable before asking for support.
Therapy can help you make sense of what happened, process what you're still carrying, and move toward a place where the experience is part of your story without continuing to control how you feel in the present.
If you're wondering whether birth trauma therapy could be right for you, you don't have to have everything figured out before reaching out.
During a free consultation, we'll talk about what you're experiencing, answer your questions, and determine whether a clinician on our team may be the right fit for you.