You should NOT have to disclose trauma to access good care 🧐

People who live with previous trauma often (always?) have a hard time accessing pregnancy/birth/postnatal services appropriate and safe for them 😢.

Gestational care is NOT trauma informed across the board, though some individual practitioners are EXCELLENT at providing everyone with sensitive trauma informed care. The current maternity system is not set up to make this universal unfortunately 🤯

To get the care you need after trauma, you often have to disclose WHY exactly you require specific adjustments (oftentimes things that ought to be standard anyway), and even then, your needs are often questioned and not prioritised.

THIS IS COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE (unless you actually want to talk about your trauma and feel safe and comfortable doing so) 🤔.

Navigating the maternity care system should NOT mean:

* retraumatising yourself by rehashing what EXACTLY happened to you

* explaining why you are still struggling with your previous experience

* getting pushback from HCPs because your needs are inconvenient to them

* having to have the SAME discussions everytime you need a new HCP

* having to compromise your needs because HCPs are not well versed in trauma informed care

What accessing care SHOULD look like:

* time to have an unrushed discussion

* being able to state your needs, however specific they might be and having them MET

* being asked what you need from your care to feel safe and comfortable, even if you have not disclosed previous trauma

* IF you have disclosed trauma, no assumptions about what you need, but an invitation to tell your HCP exactly what you might need, what needs to be avoided specifically and COMPLETE respect for your actual needs

* honest discussions about situations in which potential retraumatising scenarios might unfold (perhaps if birth doesn’t go to plan and becomes an emergency) and how to navigate this

* continuity of care so you can be sure your caregivers know what is necessary for you, and if this is lacking, very clear documentation for other HCPs who may be involved in your care

This is what good care should look like.

To be quite honest, this is what good care should look like for everybody, trauma disclosure or not. Trauma informed care is simply good care for everyone 👀

(Absolute bodily autonomy, ability to say no, only proceeding with explicit consent, and kindness are my absolute baseline, so I don’t rehash them here specifically in the context of trauma informed care)

Feel free to add what should be standard care to accommodate people with previous trauma ♥️

Painting by Yirang Kim.