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. 2023 Mar 21;23(1):197.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-023-05509-5.

Women's experiences of trauma, the psychosocial impact and health service needs during the perinatal period

Essence Perera  1 , Sharon Chou  1 , Nicole Cousins  2 , Natalie Mota  2   3 , Kristin Reynolds  4   5
Affiliations

Women's experiences of trauma, the psychosocial impact and health service needs during the perinatal period

Essence Perera et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Traumatic events are associated with psychological and physical health problems for women in the perinatal period (i.e., pregnancy-12-months after childbirth). Despite the negative impact of trauma on perinatal women, the long-term impact of such diverse trauma and women's experience during the perinatal period remains understudied.

Methods: This study explored two research questions: 1) What are the psychological experiences of perinatal women who have experienced interpersonal traumatic events? And 2) What are the service needs and gaps expressed by women relating to perinatal medical protocols and psychological services? These questions were addressed via in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine perinatal women (one pregnant and eight postpartum) residing in central Canada who reported experiencing interpersonal traumatic events occurring from adolescence to the perinatal period. Recruitment and data collection occurred from October 2020 to June 2021. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to constructivist grounded theory.

Results: The emergent grounded theory model revealed the central theme of the role of prior trauma in shaping women's perinatal experiences, with four related main themes including perinatal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of social support in women's perinatal experiences, the barriers that women experienced while seeking psychological and medical services prior to the perinatal period and during the perinatal period, and the specific needs of perinatal women with a history of interpersonal trauma.

Conclusions: Findings of this research highlight the negative and long-lasting impact of traumatic events experienced on women's psychological health and psychosocial functioning during the perinatal period, as well as perinatal women's unmet psychological and medical service needs. A call to action for perinatal researchers and clinicians is imperative in furthering this important area of research and practicing person-centered and trauma-informed care with this population.

Keywords: Health service needs; Medical care; Perinatal period; Psychological health; Psychological symptoms; Qualitative research; Trauma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Grounded theory model of perinatal women’s experiences of trauma, psychosocial impact and medical and psychological service needs. Emergent themes from qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with perinatal women
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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