Almost half of women describe their childbirth(s) as traumatic, but few moms reach out for help. Most new moms (myself included) don’t think we deserve or need any sort of intervention. Giving birth is one of the most transformative processes a woman will go through during her life and you are not alone if it scarred you in some way.

I know the definition generally states that a person must experience something during the labor process that involves actual or threatened serious injury/death, but birth trauma is more than just near death experiences during labor and delivery. Birth trauma, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others in the maternal medical field, can encompass anything traumatic within the perinatal period (from conception to a year after birth). What you label as trauma might not be what someone else calls trauma, but hear this:

All birth trauma is valid.

The purpose of this article is to show you aren’t alone in your struggles through motherhood. Below you’ll find stories of women that experienced some sort of trauma in the process of becoming Mom.

These stories have been slightly altered in order to keep them anonymous.

“My firstborn got ‘stuck’ for eight minutes, head in and half out. There was palpable panic in the delivery room with a nurse on top of me pushing hard on the top of my abdomen. The doctor was pulling from his end. Baby was born blue, and quiet with an APGAR score of 2. He had shoulder dystocia but his one minute APGAR was 6…I totally had PTSD because when it was time to deliver my next child and they said it was time to push, all I could remember was how difficult it was to push out #1. I literally had a panic attack (my pediatrician and friend were next door having their own baby and we later laughed about my literal screaming ‘I can’t do this!’).”

Please visit Knoxville Moms to finish reading all of the brave mama stories.