Purpose
The purpose of this study is to clarify the following questions:
Are emergency caesarean sections perceived as a traumatic experience by women who had a live birth?
What reactions do the women have to the acute stress after emergency caesarean sections that were perceived as traumatic experience?
Methods
Eleven women who delivered live babies by emergency caesarean section at a private maternity hospital were interviewed using semi-structured guides on the second and seventh day after surgery and again at one-month post surgery. They were also observed in the post delivery ward. The data for birth and postnatal experiences from transcriptions and field notes were analyzed based on the diagnostic criteria for acute stress disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, American Psychiatric Association, 1994/1996). Further, the birth and postnatal (the first week post surgery) experiences of women who had acute stress reactions included re-experience their traumas were descriptively analyzed.
Results
Eight of the 11 women experienced their emergency caesarean delivery as a traumatic event, and three of the eight women re-experienced their traumas through flashbacks, nightmares, and intrusive memories. These 3 women perceived their violent birth experiences as traumas that overwhelmed their and their babies' lives or their identities, rather than simply as a surgical procedure. However, three factors contributed to changing their negative perceptions of childbirth, and then alleviating their acute stress reactions: 1) feeling comforted or healed by their babies, 2) good physical condition of mother and baby due to good hospital care, and 3) talking about their birth experiences with a third person.
Conclusion
These results suggest that early contact of mother and baby, support for breastfeeding, parenting and birth review are important to alleviate women's acute stress reactions after emergency caesarean section.