Do you suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD or panic because of birth trauma? I am a trauma therapist in New Zealand who can help.
In my experience, birth trauma can be rapidly and permanently healed using Havening Techniques, often in a single session of therapy.
Between a quarter and a third of women in the Western world have traumatic experiences during childbirth. Childbirth trauma and resulting PTSD has a severe impact: post-natal depression, difficulty in bonding with a new baby, long term anxiety or depression, and panic attacks, which can last a lifetime. Not only the mother is affected; these traumatic events have serious consequences for family life and the emotional wellbeing of the growing child.
Many mothers experience trauma when there is an escalating series of medical interventions during labour, ending in emergency C-Section. The thought of delivering another baby can lead to fear or panic.
Unfortunately, access to mental health services for mothers with birth trauma is seriously limited. Existing treatments, such as counselling or therapy, may require many sessions to relieve the trauma.
New hope
Now a breakthrough technique offers hope of rapid relief: Havening Techniques®, developed by Ronald Ruden MD.
Havening is based on the latest neuroscience that explains how traumatic events are hard-wired in the brain to cause PTSD, for instance the symptoms experienced by mothers in the months or years after a traumatic birth. Havening triggers a rapid healing mechanism in the brain that erases the neural encoding of the trauma. While the objective memory is left unchanged, all the painful emotional and stress reactions are deleted. Mothers can then connect to the joy of their child’s birth without being overwhelmed with traumatic images and feelings. Further information is available at havening.org or Dr Youngson’s website, neuroscienceofhealing.com
Dr Robin Youngson, a retired medical specialist and pioneering practitioner of Havening Techniques in New Zealand, offered free care to mothers with childbirth trauma, in return for engaging in a simple research trial. Dr Youngson measured outcomes using the Impact of Events Scale (Revised) (IES), a self-reported scale that measures the presence and severity of PTSD symptoms related to a particular traumatic event. The mothers are asked to do the self-assessment of symptoms before Havening, 7 days after the session, and 30 to 60 days after the session (to ensure that benefits are long-lasting).
The IES scale includes statements such as:
- Any reminder brought back feelings
- I felt irritable and angry
- Pictures about it popped into my mind
- I was jumpy and easily startled
- I found myself acting or feeling like I was back at that time
- Reminders of it caused me to have physical reactions such as sweating, trouble breathing, nausea, or a pounding heart
Clients were carefully assessed from a medical and trauma perspective and individualised programs of care were offered for each client, depending on the complexity and severity of the trauma. Standard Havening Techniques protocols were followed in the care of mothers, including the protocol to erase a traumatic memory, and a protocol to diminish any residual negative feelings. In some clients, several distinct traumatic moments during childbirth were rapidly erased in the one session. All sessions were completed within 50 minutes. Treatment was provided at Dr Youngson’s Neuroscience of Healing Clinic in Raglan, New Zealand. The large majority of clients only needed only one session of Havening to resolve their trauma.
Results of the pilot research trial
Twenty-nine mothers with traumatic experience of childbirth volunteered for the study. All had intrusive symptoms, many had PTSD and some had very severe PTSD, lasting up to twenty years after childbirth. The Impact of Events Scale provides a measure of severity of symptoms. A score of 33 or above confirms a diagnosis of PTSD. A score of 37 or above indicates PTSD so severe that immune function will be suppressed. Of the study participants, the highest presenting score was 69 (extensive lifelong trauma in addition to childbirth) and the lowest score was 15. Twenty-two out of the twenty-nine mothers had a score confirming a diagnosis of PTSD. Four mothers had scores suggestive of PTSD; the ten other mothers had intrusive symptoms that caused them distress but didn’t qualify as PTSD.
Of the twenty-one mothers with an IES score of 45 or less, seventeen (80%) reported rapid relief of symptoms after a single 50 minutes session of Havening. The remaining four clients had more than one trauma, (pregnancy trauma + birth trauma; more than one birth trauma; birth trauma + neonatal complications) and therefore required two sessions of Havening.
The symptom score was measured before treatment, 7 days after the last treatment, and 30 to 60 days after the last treatment.
Client 1 reports that she also has complex trauma and new life stresses unrelated to childbirth, which increased her score after therapy.
Eights of the clients had very severe PTSD, with scores above 45: One mother had looked after a disabled son for twenty years; one mother had multiple, severe life traumas; one had severe pregnancy complications then a traumatic birth, one had a traumatic birth and then mothered a severely disabled child; two had severe neonatal baby complications in addition to birth trauma. Of these eight mothers, four recovered after a single session of Havening, and four have had two sessions of Havening (30 day results are shown and Havening treatment is continuing after the data collection was completed).
Clients 28 and 29 have yet to report their 30-day scores.
Only one client reports no improvement and she continues to care for a severely disabled child as an ongoing source of trauma.
The average IES score before Havening was 40. The average score seven days after Havening was 13. The average score (of those reported) thirty days after havening was 10, a 75% reduction in symptoms.
What do the mothers say, after experiencing Havening?
The large reductions in symptom scores are backed up with the comments from the mothers. Here are what some of the mothers have said after their Havening session (shared with permission):
“I cannot begin to describe how much my mental health has improved since seeing you. I used to go to work with debilitating anxiety and wake up with stomach pains every morning. I don’t any longer. I was able to discuss my birth plan and aspirations with my midwife without crying, and talk specifics without being haunted by my first birth. It’s a very liberating feeling.”
“I really feel that the healings have helped me and i am extremely grateful. During the birth of my son 3 years ago, my midwife took photos. I haven’t been able to look at them and the thought of them sent me into an emotional spin. Last night I decided to look at them and spent about 20mins studying them, with no trauma related emotion. I saw completely different things and I actually had happy tears! I was able to see the birth in a completely different light. It was amazing!”
“I have finally been able to tap into the joy of having my son. After 20 years of not being able to think about one of the most precious days of my life, Havening has taken that trauma away, totally. Now I can think of the excitement of his impending arrival and the awe and wonder of him once we brought him home.”
“Pretty amazing! I feel like that was my body releasing so much stuff! But last night I had the best sleep ever! And feel like I’ve had a huge break through. I do know for a fact, that Havening had a huge impact on my mental and emotional well-being. I was smiling from the inside out.”
All of the mothers report dramatic relief of symptoms in their confidential client follow-up, with the exception of client 15 who has a severely disabled child and ongoing trauma (she is being offered further care).
Discussion
What’s striking is the severity of PTSD experienced by many of the mothers – up to twenty years after the birth. It was confronting to hear the stories of extreme trauma and violence experienced by mothers during hospital care.
Client follow-up at thirty to sixty days after Havening shows that the benefits are not only prolonged but also self-reinforcing. Most mothers had a lower score at 30 days after treatment, than at 7 days after treatment (no additional Havening sessions given). From experience with hundreds of Havening clients over a number of years, Dr Youngson believes the benefit is permanent. To potentially abolish PTSD in just one or two session of simple, guided self-healing is remarkable.
None of the mothers had a significant abreaction in the days after Havening.
The Havening technique is a gentle and light-hearted process that typically takes about 15 to 25 minutes to complete. The rapid changes in the client are striking, from expressions of tearfulness and distress at the memory of birth, to astonishment that the events can now be recalled without any distress.
Havening is underpinned by a detailed scientific theory, which predicts that the changes will be permanent. The nerve connections encoding the trauma in the Amgdala are deleted by removal of receptors from the cell surface. It therefore becomes impossible to re-trigger the trauma.
The next steps
This pilot trial gives us essential information so that we can design a rigorous, randomised, controlled trial where outcomes are independently assessed. The use of a control group will allow us to eliminate the placebo effect. Thus far, there is one published, randomised, controlled trial of Havening, which shows significant results.
This pilot study has confirmed that the Impact of Events Scale (Revised) is a sensitive outcome measure for the treatment of childbirth trauma. We now know the effect size to expect and can describe healing protocols that are safe, rapid and effective.
Please contact Dr Robin Youngson for further information.
Brilliant work and healing. A gift for the mother and family.