What are the characteristics of perinatal events perceived to be traumatic by midwives?

Midwifery. 2016 Sep;40:55-61.

Sheen K, Spiby H, Slade P.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:there is potential for midwives to indirectly experience events whilst providing clinical care that fulfil criteria for trauma. This research aimed to investigate the characteristics of events perceived as traumatic by UK midwives. METHODS: as part of a postal questionnaire survey conducted between December 2011 and April 2012, midwives (n=421) who had witnessed and/or listened to an account of an event and perceived this as traumatic for themselves provided a written description of their experience. A traumatic perinatal event was defined as occurring during labour or shortly after birth where the midwife perceived the mother or her infant to be at risk, and they (the midwife) had experienced fear, helplessness or horror in response. Descriptions of events were analysed using thematic analysis. Witnessed (W; n=299) and listened to (H; n=383) events were analysed separately and collated to identify common and distinct themes across both types of exposure. FINDINGS: six themes were identified, each with subthemes. Five themes were identified in both witnessed and listened to accounts and one was salient to witnessed accounts only. Themes indicated that events were characterised as severe, unexpected and complex. They involved aspects relating to the organisational context; typically limited or delayed access to resources or personnel. There were aspects relating to parents, such as having an existing relationship with the parents, and negative perceptions of the conduct of colleagues.Traumatic events had a common theme of generating feelings of responsibility and blame Finally for witnessed events those that were perceived as traumatic sometimes held personal salience, so resonated in some way with the midwife’s own life experience. KEY CONCLUSIONS: midwives are exposed to events as part of their work that they may find traumatic. Understanding the characteristics of the events that may trigger this perception may facilitate prevention of any associated distress and inform the development of supportive interventions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27428099

Grief, Traumatic Stress, and Posttraumatic Growth in Women Who Have Experienced Pregnancy Loss.

Psychol Trauma. 2016 Sep 8.

Krosch DJ, Shakespeare-Finch J.

Abstract

Objective: Pregnancy loss is common and can be devastating for those who experience it. However, a historical focus on negative outcomes, and grief in particular, has rendered an incomplete portrait of both the gravity of the loss, and the potential for growth in its wake. Consistent with contemporary models of growth following bereavement, this study explored the occurrence of posttraumatic growth following pregnancy loss and further assessed the role of core belief disruptions and common loss context factors across perinatal grief, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and posttraumatic growth. Method: Women who had experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth (N = 328) were recruited through perinatal loss support groups and completed an online survey that assessed core belief disruption, perinatal grief, posttraumatic stress symptoms, posttraumatic growth, loss context factors, and demographics. Hypotheses were tested via hierarchical multiple regression. Results: All hypotheses were supported. Specifically, (a) moderate levels of posttraumatic growth were reported; (b) core belief disruptions predicted perinatal grief, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and posttraumatic growth; and (c) perinatal grief predicted posttraumatic stress symptoms and growth. Conclusion: Findings suggest that pregnancy loss can be a traumatic event, that core belief disruptions play a significant role in post-trauma outcomes, and that other factors may contribute to grief, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and posttraumatic growth following pregnancy loss that warrant further research (e.g., rumination). Despite potential methodological and sampling limitations, the use of validated measures to assess posttraumatic growth in a large sample represents a robust attempt to quantify the occurrence of post-trauma change following pregnancy loss.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27607765

Understanding Bidirectional Mother-Infant Affective Displays across Contexts: Effects of Maternal Maltreatment History and Postpartum Depression and PTSD Symptoms.

Psychopathology. 2016 Sep 1.

Morelen D, Menke R, Rosenblum KL, Beeghly M, Muzik M.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study examined the bidirectional nature of mother-infant positive and negative emotional displays during social interactions across multiple tasks among postpartum women accounting for childhood maltreatment severity. Additionally, effects of maternal postpartum psychopathology on maternal affect and effects of task and emotional valence on dyadic emotional displays were evaluated. SAMPLING AND METHODS: A total of 192 mother-infant dyads (51% male infants) were videotaped during free play and the Still-Face paradigm at 6 months postpartum. Mothers reported on trauma history and postpartum depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Reliable, masked coders scored maternal and infant positive and negative affect from the videotaped interactions. RESULTS: Three path models evaluated whether dyadic affective displays were primarily mother driven, infant driven, or bidirectional in nature, adjusting for mothers’ maltreatment severity and postpartum psychopathology. The bidirectional model had the best fit. Child maltreatment severity predicted depression and PTSD symptoms, and maternal symptoms predicted affective displays (both positive and negative), but the pattern differed for depressive symptoms compared to PTSD symptoms. Emotional valence and task altered the nature of bidirectional affective displays. CONCLUSIONS: The results add to our understanding of dyadic affective exchanges in the context of maternal risk (childhood maltreatment history, postpartum symptoms of depression and PTSD). Findings highlight postpartum depression symptoms as one mechanism of risk transmission from maternal maltreatment history to impacted parent-child interactions. Limitations include reliance on self-reported psychological symptoms and that the sample size prohibited testing of moderation analyses. Developmental and clinical implications are discussed.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27576477

The impact of postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms on child development: A population-based, 2-year follow-up study.

Psychological Medicine, Sep 29, 2016

Garthus-Niegel, S., Ayers, S., Martini, J., von Soest, T., Eberhard-Gran, M.

Abstract

Background: Against the background of very limited evidence, the present study aimed to prospectively examine the impact of maternal postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on four important areas of child development, i.e. gross motor, fine motor, communication and social–emotional development. Method: This study is part of the large, population-based Akershus Birth Cohort. Data from the hospital’s birth record as well as questionnaire data from 8 weeks and 2 years postpartum were used (n = 1472). The domains of child development that were significantly correlated with PTSD symptoms were entered into regression analyses. Interaction analyses were run to test whether the influence of postpartum PTSD symptoms on child development was moderated by child sex or infant temperament. Results: Postpartum PTSD symptoms had a prospective relationship with poor child social–emotional development 2 years later. This relationship remained significant even when adjusting for confounders such as maternal depression and anxiety or infant temperament. Both child sex and infant temperament moderated the association between maternal PTSD symptoms and child social–emotional development, i.e. with increasing maternal PTSD symptom load, boys and children with a difficult temperament were shown to have comparatively higher levels of social–emotional problems. Conclusions: Examining four different domains of child development, we found a prospective impact of postpartum PTSD symptoms on children’s social–emotional development at 2 years of age. Our findings suggest that both boys and children with an early difficult temperament may be particularly susceptible to the adverse impact of postpartum PTSD symptoms. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the mechanisms at work

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27682188

Association between theta power in 6-month old infants at rest and maternal PTSD severity: A pilot study.

Neuroscience Letters 2016 Sep 6; Vol. 630, pp. 120-6.

Sanjuan PM; Poremba C; Flynn LR; Savich R; Annett RD; Stephen J

Abstract

Compared to infants born to mothers without PTSD, infants born to mothers with active PTSD develop poorer behavioral reactivity and emotional regulation. However, the association between perinatal maternal PTSD and infant neural activation remains largely unknown. This pilot study (N=14) examined the association between perinatal PTSD severity and infant frontal neural activity, as measured by MEG theta power during rest. Results indicated that resting left anterior temporal/frontal theta power was correlated with perinatal PTSD severity (p=0.004). These findings suggest delayed cortical maturation in infants whose mothers had higher perinatal PTSD severity and generate questions regarding perinatal PTSD severity and infant neurophysiological consequences.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27473944

The prevalence of women’s emotional and physical health problems following a postpartum haemorrhage: a systematic review.

BMC Pregnancy And Childbirth [BMC Pregnancy Childbirth] 2016 Sep 05; Vol. 16, pp. 261.

Carroll M; Daly D; Begley CM

Abstract

Background: Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) is a leading cause of maternal mortality with approximately 225 women dying as a result of it each day especially in low income countries. However, much less is known about morbidity after a PPH. This systematic review aimed to determine the overall prevalence of emotional and physical health problems experienced by women following a postpartum haemorrhage. Methods: Eight databases were searched for published non-randomised, observational, including cohort, primary research studies that reported on the prevalence of emotional and/or physical health problems following a PPH. Intervention studies were included and data, if available, were abstracted on the control group. All authors independently screened the papers for inclusion. Of the 2210 papers retrieved, six met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted independently by two authors. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using a modified Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS). The primary outcome measure reported was emotional and physical health problems up to 12 months postpartum following a postpartum haemorrhage. Results: Two thousand two hundred ten citations were identified and screened with 2089 excluded by title and abstract. Following full-text review of 121 papers, 115 were excluded. The remaining 6 studies were included. All included studies were judged as having strong or moderate methodological quality. Five studies had the sequelae of PPH as their primary focus, and one study focused on morbidity postnatally, from which we could extract data on PPH. Persistent morbidities following PPH (at ≥ 3 and < 6 months postpartum) included postnatal depression (13 %), post-traumatic stress disorder (3 %), and health status ‘much worse than one year ago’ (6 %). Due to the different types of health outcomes reported in the individual studies, it was possible to pool results from only four studies, and only then by accepting the slightly differing definitions of PPH. Those that could be pooled reported rates of acute renal failure (0.33 %), coagulopathy (1.74 %) and re-admission to hospital following a PPH between 1 and 3 months postpartum (3.6 %), an appreciable indication of underlying physical problems. Conclusion: This systematic review demonstrates that the existence and type of physical and emotional health problems post PPH, regardless of the volume of blood lost, are largely unknown. Further large cohort or case control studies are necessary to obtain better knowledge of the sequelae of this debilitating morbidity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27596720

Seeing Their Children in Pain: Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Mothers of Children with an Anomaly Requiring Surgery at Birth.

American Journal of Perinatology. 2016, Vol. 33 Issue 8, p770-775. 6p.

Aite, Lucia1, Bevilacqua, Francesca, Zaccara, Antonio, La Sala, Edoardo, Gentile, Simonetta, Bagolan, Pietro

Abstract:

Objective: Assess the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in mothers of newborns requiring early surgery. Study Design: Mothers of newborns operated on for a congenital anomaly underwent a semi-structured interview on their experience 6 months postpartum. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for symptoms of the three major criteria of PTSD: re-experiencing, avoidance, and heightened arousal. Results: A total of 120 mothers took part in the study; their children were affected by one of the following congenital anomaly: esophageal atresia (n = 29); congenital diaphragmatic hernia (n = 38); midgut malformations (n = 38); and abdominal wall defects (n = 15). Two mothers did not show any symptoms; 12 mothers (10%) had one posttraumatic symptom, 77 (64.2%) had two, and 29 (24.2%) had three. Overall, 106 mothers (88.4%) presented at least two symptoms. Conclusion: PTSD can be considered a useful model to describe and comprehend mothers’ reactions in this specific population. Preventive interventions and dedicated follow-up program should be offered to these families.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26890434