The Anniversary of Birth Trauma 1

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The Anniversary of Birth Trauma 1 Running Head: THE ANNIVERSARY OF BIRTH TRAUMA The Anniversary of Birth Trauma: Failure to Rescue Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN University of Connecticut School of Nursing 231 Glenbrook Road Storrs, CT 06269-2026 (Work) 860-486-0547 (Fax) 860-486-0001 E-mail: Cheryl.beck@uconn.edu The Anniversary of Birth Trauma 2 Acknowledgements The author wishes to especially thank Sue Watson, the Chairperson of Trauma and Birth Stress (TABS), a charitable trust located in New Zealand for her invaluable assistance in recruitment and her continual support for my research. Also the author thanks Debra Lajoie, MSN for her insightful suggestion to apply the term “failure to rescue” to the discussion of the findings. Lastly, words do not seem enough to thank the women from around the world who so willingly shared their painful and vivid stories with me in the hopes of helping other mothers who have experienced birth trauma. The Anniversary of Birth Trauma 3 Abstract Background: Reported prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder secondary to birth trauma ranges from 1.5 to 5.6%. Objective: What is the essence of mothers’ experiences regarding the anniversary of their birth trauma? Method: Colaizzi’s method of phenomenology guided the study. Participants were recruited via the Internet through a charitable trust located in New Zealand called Trauma and Birth Stress. Thirty-seven women sent on attachment stories describing their experiences of the anniversary of their traumatic childbirths. Results: Four themes revealed the essence of women’s experiences of the anniversary of their birth trauma: (1) The prologue: An agonizing time, (2) The actual day: A celebration of a birthday or the torment of an anniversary, (3) The epilogue: A fragile state, and (4) Subsequent anniversaries: For better or worse. Discussion:
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