prenatal trauma during pregnancy

prenatal trauma during pregnancy There are individual differences in the experience of trauma for each parent of
any premature infant. A premature birth can hold different significance
depending on factors in the parents’ lives and experience, and their effect on the
birth experience.
Some of the common characteristics of the experiences of parents of
premature infants have been described by researchers interested in the
psychological impact of this abrupt transition to parenthood. Tracey (2000) has
identified the following features:
• an initial lack of affect when describing the experience of the birth—a lack of
a sense of the internal meaning of events
• later return of emotion as the infant is gradually handed over to the care of
the parents
• terror of death; always for the infant and sometimes for the mother
• shock
• marked differences in feelings and attitudes towards parenting compared with parents of full-term infants
• increased period of early preoccupation with the infant after return home
from hospital
• ambivalence towards staff who both protect and sustain the life of the infant,
but also come between the mother and infant.
Tracey (2000), in a study of the emotions of parents of premature infants,
found that the rupturing of normal birth processes also had a significant effect
on the emotional connection within the family unit. Tracey conducted research
on 12 couples over 12 weeks, identifying emotional processes affected by the premature birth of an infant. The experience of trauma was found to be
significant to all parents, and to have a range of effects. According to Tracey,
trauma affects a range of emotional processes and therefore has an effect on the
way that parents of premature infants behave, think and gradually come to terms with what has happened.