Episode 193: Navigating Birth Trauma

Birth trauma is more common than most doulas realize. Most doula trainings are not preparing doulas to spot it.

In this episode, I sit down with Jamie Bodily, MS, LPC, to talk about what the research actually says about how often birth trauma happens, and why the numbers are higher than most people assume.

Our conversation covers what birth trauma can look like from a client’s perspective. Some signs are obvious. Some show up weeks later and get missed because nobody was looking for them. Jamie breaks down the other mental health factors that may show up alongside it, and why doulas need to know the difference between what’s within our scope and what needs a referral. She also walks through how to use the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as a screening tool, and which questions should trigger an immediate referral.

There’s also the crisis piece. If a client is in a current crisis, we don’t have time to research resources from scratch. We need to already know where to send them.

This one is for every doula who has left a client visit wondering if what they just witnessed was normal, or something more.