Reclaiming Power After Birth Trauma: Share Your Story

Childbirth is one of the most powerful rites of passage a person can experience. It’s meant to be sacred, transformative, and whole. But for many, it becomes a chapter marked by trauma, coercion, confusion, or harm—not because their bodies failed, but because the systems and support around them did.

These experiences often go unspoken. But your story matters. Your voice matters. And sharing it isn't just about calling out what's wrong; it's about validating your expeirence, being heard and equipping others to do birth differently.

What Is Birth Trauma?

Birth trauma is not just physical injury. It’s the emotional, mental, and spiritual wound that occurs when someone feels powerless, unheard, violated, or unseen during their birthing experience.

It can include:

• Unconsented procedures or rushed decisions without explanations

• Dismissal of pain, preferences, or spiritual/emotional needs

• Being pressured to comply rather than being supported to decide

• A lack of safety, even in settings that claimed to be "natural" or "supportive"

• Being treated as a liability instead of a whole person

What many people don’t realize is that birth trauma can happen anywhere; in hospitals, at home, in birth centers, with OBs, or with midwives. No setting or profession is immune. The common thread is when someone’s voice, body, and instincts are overpowered.

Birth Trauma by the Numbers

• Up to 45% of birthing mothers report birth as traumatic.

• 1 in 3 describe feeling disrespected or ignored during labor.

• 4–6% go on to develop clinical post-traumatic stress from their birth experience.

• Out-of-hospital births, while often associated with autonomy, are not immune, reports exist of "holistic trauma", neglect, unsafe practices or gaslighting under the guise of "trusting birth."

The truth is: birth trauma is not a hospital issue or a midwife issue. It is a systemic issue of power, perception, and preparation, a lack of informed awareness from both providers and parents.

Why Share Your Story?

Every story told is a lantern lit.

When we share, we:

• Validate our own healing journey

• Break the silence for others still suffering

• Offer a mirror to what’s possible even after trauma

• Equip others with wisdom to prepare differently next time

Your voice can help another woman or birthing person reclaim their agency, confidence, and clarity. And it can help YOU fully integrate your experience.

This Isn't Just About Changing the System—It’s About Navigating It

Here’s the hard truth: Most of the birth system as it exists will not change fast enough to prevent harm on its own.

But you can change how you move within it.

You can learn how to:

• Ask the right questions

• Choose aligned providers and recognize red flags early

• Understand hospital policies, timelines, and consent dynamics

• Strengthen your decision-making muscles

• Take radical responsibility for your birth by preparing emotionally, spiritually, physically, and educationally to self advocate and navigate

This doesn't mean taking blame. This means taking back power.

What to Be Aware of to Reduce Trauma in Any Setting:

🧭 Know the environment — Each location (hospital, home, birth center) has its own culture, policies, and expectations. Learn what they are before labor starts.

🗣️ Know your voice — Learn how to use B.R.A.I.N. tools (Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition, Nothing) and practice boundary-setting and preferences with your team ahead of time.

📖 Know your rights — Consent is not optional. You have the right to be fully informed and never coerced. Period.

🧘 Know your nervous system — Learn how to regulate your breath and stress response in birth. The more grounded you are, the more centered your choices will be.

🤝 Know your support system — Don’t assume anyone (even midwives) will advocate unless you clearly build that expectation. Hire someone who educates, not just comforts.

Take Your Power Back: Submit Your Story

This is a sacred space for birth stories that speak to trauma, truth, transformation, and the rebirth that happens after reclaiming your voice.

Whether your trauma was in a hospital or at home, with an OB or a midwife…Whether it shaped your next birth, or you’re still finding your healing…

Comment below and share your testimony.

If you would like to privately debrief you can DM us in the bottom right hand chatbox or 💌 Email your story to TheWombSisterhood@gmail.com

Trauma in birth doesn’t only happen to the underprepared or the uninformed.

It happens when power is unequal, when trust is misplaced, and when autonomy is outsourced—and all of that can happen anywhere.

We’re not waiting on a better system.

We’re becoming better equipped navigators of the one we’re in.

And when we do that—story by story, choice by choice; birth becomes ours again.

💬 Have you taken your power back after trauma? Are you preparing differently this time? Are you navigating a deeply traumatic experience in need of prayer? Drop a comment below or email us your story. Let’s turn pain into power and lead others to healing.