Aiding positive birth and postpartum experiences should matter to pro-lifers

The type of birth experience a woman has should matter deeply to the pro-life movement, because it can impact her decisions about her – and her children’s – future. 

When a woman experiences birth trauma and/or a postpartum mood or anxiety disorder (PMAD) — postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum OCD, postpartum psychosis, or postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — she becomes vulnerable to Planned Parenthood’s predatory practices in subsequent pregnancies. 

Key Takeaways:

• Women may experience trauma during one of the most vulnerable times in her life. It can be physical or psychological birth trauma, the latter of which may be multi-layered.

• A woman’s traumatic birth experience may cause her attitude toward future pregnancies and childbirth to shift in a negative direction.

• Pro-lifers should realize that helping women to have positive birth experiences plays a part in combating abortion.

The Details:

What is “birth trauma”?

Birth trauma refers to “physical injuries during labor and delivery, both to the neonate and to the [woman], as well as psychological injuries or stress that can occur to the individual giving birth and those involved in the delivery process.” 

There are many moving parts when it comes to birth trauma. 

• Physical birth trauma: Most commonly refers to vaginal tears, which occur in up to 90% of first-time mothers and can be so significant that they lead to inability to control flow of urine or stool, painful sex, and other issues, even a year or more after giving birth. Logically, physical birth trauma may lead to psychological birth trauma. 

• Psychological birth trauma: Sometimes resulting from an unexpected medical complication such as postpartum hemorrhage or preeclampsia or another medical issue requiring admission to an intensive care unit, or because of a problem with the baby. It can also occur during physically ‘normal’ births where a woman feels unsupported, abandoned, disrespected, coerced or pressured, or out of control due to the attitudes and practices of those caring for her. 

In a 2024 expert review published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, studies suggest that up to 50% of women consider their birth traumatic and experience some symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Similarly, a 2023 systematic review found that 10-44% of women, depending on the study, experience psychological birth trauma. 

Lastly, a PMAD may develop in a woman who did not have birth trauma but…

• experiences financial difficulties 

• lacks emotional or physical support in caring for her newborn plus herself plus any older children

• is especially sensitive to the massive hormonal drop after childbirth, among other reasons 

Labor, birth, and postpartum are a uniquely gifted but also vulnerable time in a mother's life. Those who don't receive the support they deserve may make up the estimated 10-15% of new mothers who suffer a PMAD. 

As a result of psychological birth trauma and/or experiencing a PMAD – described in painful detail in hundreds of episodes of the Mom and Mind or Postpartum Support International’s I AM ONE podcasts – many women choose to delay future childbearing or not to have any more children at all.  

The connection between birth trauma and abortion vulnerability 

For those women who do go on to conceive again, the messages they implicitly or explicitly received during a traumatic birth or from experiencing a PMAD can mirror the attitudes and messages Planned Parenthood utilizes to encourage women to choose abortion. 

First among these messages is the idea that the baby was prioritized over the woman in some way, such that she was not cared for or supported in the ways she needed during or after the labor and birth process.

If a woman has experienced deep in her soul that during the most physically and psychologically vulnerable time of her life (labor and birth, and then the postpartum period), she did not receive the attention and help she needed, how much more likely will she be to perceive her new baby as a ‘threat’ to her emotional health? 

This sets her up to believe Planned Parenthood’s claims that babies are a threat to their mothers, pitting mothers against their children. 

While there is not yet research examining the direct effect of previous psychological birth trauma or a PMAD on a future abortion decision, a 2017 report on reasons women have abortions found that 19% said they were not emotionally or mentally prepared to have a child. We know, too, that most women who have abortions are already mothers. 

A 2024 Romper article summarizes Guttmacher Institute research finding “that many abortion patients chose to terminate a pregnancy because remaining pregnant would interfere with their ability to care for dependents.”  

How many of them feel unable to welcome a child because they continue to experience the aftershocks of untreated or undertreated PMADs?

The Bottom Line:

The number one goal of the pro-life movement is to stop abortion. 

We know these three things:

• Most women who choose abortion are already mothers.

• A woman's labor and birth experience heavily colors her postpartum.

• Pro-lifers care about both mothers and babies.

Because of these, we also know that helping women have positive birth experiences (especially in the hospital setting, since that's where the vast majority of women give birth) is not a distraction from the main goal. 

It’s part of making abortion unthinkable.