Could past birth trauma play a role in women’s abortion decisions?

In a webinar titled “Helping Moms Be Heroes,” certified nurse midwife and clinical director of the Guiding Star Tampa Bay Birth Center Tammy Masut said that many abortion-minded or abortion-vulnerable women are "not rejecting motherhood, but they’re reacting to the fear and pain from previous experiences."

Masut added, "Traumatic births or lack of support, feeling unheard, feeling disrespected, can lead to really lasting emotional and physical scars.” She elaborated, "When they get pregnant again, it can feel like walking into the same storm all over again.” For that reason, “Many women, that’s their first reaction: I can’t do this again.” 

Key Takeaways:

• Most women who choose abortion are already mothers.

• Past birth trauma — a physical injury or even feeling unsupported during labor and birth — may play a role in some women's decision to abort.

• Women deserve authentic healthcare that respects their bodies as well as their past experiences so they can welcome each new life, knowing they are safe and supported.

The Details:

The webinar, hosted by the pro-life women’s health network The Guiding Star Project, discussed the significant impact that previous birth and postpartum trauma can have on women’s future pregnancies.

Executive Director of the Guiding Star Southwest affiliate and founder and CEO of Southwest Coalition Mark Cavaliere shared a startling, distressing statistic. According to an April 2025 fact sheet from Guttmacher, approximately 55% of women who choose abortion are already mothers. 

Most abortion-minded women, though often thought to be teenagers experiencing crisis pregnancies, actually have a child or children already. These women have seen ultrasound images and felt the miracle of a baby kicking inside them.

"The Body Keeps the Score"

During the webinar, Masut explained that past birth trauma – which may be caused by objective factors (emergency C-section or life-threatening maternal hemorrhage) or subjective factors (feeling belittled, coerced, or not supported during labor or birth) – can manifest in multiple ways, including “fear, anxiety, distrust of physical providers, even physical tension.” Specifically, Masut reported:

“We’ve had women that couldn’t progress in labor; they get stalled at 6, 7, 8 centimeters and they cannot progress until we’ve had a heart-to-heart and tell them they’re loved, they’re cared for, they’re safe. That’s the biggest one, that they’re safe.” 

Speaking from my personal experience of two-and-a-half hours of stalled labor when I was completely dilated with my fifth child following birth trauma during my fourth labor and delivery experience, Masut’s words resonated deeply.

The saying, “the body keeps the score,” from a book by the same name, represents the idea that our bodies absorb traumatic experiences, and when presented with similar circumstances react as if we are in danger, even if in the present moment and situation we are not. 

Women’s health coach Brigid Tebaldi underscored that past birth or postpartum trauma (as a woman may experience if she is physically, emotionally, or otherwise unsupported as she walks through her early motherhood journey) doesn’t just make moms “nervous” when they get pregnant again.

“The brain will remember that threat it went through before," she said. "The fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response will activate. It’s not just that she feels ‘nervous.’ Her nervous system believes she’s in [active, acute] danger.” 

Tebaldi cited 2024 research finding that (depending on the study) between 1 in 2 and 1 in 10 mothers perceive their birth to be traumatic. Postpartum Support International’s Blue Dot Project reports that up to 9% of women experience full-blown post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis due to their labor and birth experiences. 

How to Help:

When it comes to how to help women who have had previous birth or postpartum trauma and find themselves pregnant again, Tebaldi shared multiple strategies:

• Education – on how their bodies were physiologically built to birth, hormones, the labor process, and nervous system regulation – helps women learn to trust both the labor process and their own bodies again.

• Tapping into religious faith – to assign meaning to and find good in the past experience as well as to trust in the grace to go through with the current pregnancy – is also helpful.

• Providing trauma-informed care – that listens without judgment or trying to fix, recognizes signs of retraumatization, and offers tools to work with the nervous system to bring safety back to the body – is paramount.

• Continuous support as provided especially by doulas, which made all the difference in my own experience with baby #5, is another key strategy.

• Midwifery care, which perceives birth to be a normal, natural process that requires support and only intervenes when necessary, is pivotal too. 

Of course, as Guiding Star Project President and mother of 11 children Lisa Canning emphasized, prevention is the best medicine.

Guiding Star Project seeks to help women learn to trust and listen to their bodies from the very beginning. Starting with body literacy education as early as age nine, young girls are taught “I can trust my body” by learning what to expect when their period comes and how it is a sign of health.

As girls grow into young women, they learn about what GSP founder Leah Jacobson has dubbed the female superpowers: ovulation, menstruation, gestation, and lactation. 

Young women and women also learn that their fertility does not need to be “suppressed, altered, or destroyed” via contraception or abortion.

When it comes to trying to conceive and pregnancy, a woman who has had the value and intelligibility of her body affirmed throughout her reproductive lifespan is...

• less likely to succumb to a medicalized approach to labor that prioritizes speed in getting the baby out over the emotional and physical wellbeing of the mother.

• likely to perceive her capability and strength.

When she reaches the end of her reproductive years, education on what to expect in menopause and support in managing its symptoms (hopefully) closes out decades of respectful, peaceful, integrated experience. 

The Bottom Line:

When women receive the approach to women’s healthcare championed by the Guiding Star Project network and likeminded healthcare practitioners, they’re more likely to reject abortion – even if birth or postpartum trauma is in their past.

Authentic women’s healthcare that respects their bodies as well as their past experiences truly, in the words of the webinar title, “helps moms to be heroes” in choosing life for their children.