Heal Your Birth Story: ...releasing the unexpected

by Maureen Campion

Psychologist and birth trauma expert Maureen Campion shares her lessons for releasing the unexpected wounds that come from having a rough birth experience. Birth can be beautiful and spiritual and joyous but there are also terrifying, emotionally raw, painful moments that can be difficult to move past. This book offers you a chance to experience the healing power of working through your birth story, while learning about trauma and developing coping skills for all those complicated feelings. Maureen Campion shares her personal experience with birth trauma and the work she has been doing working with mothers through workshops and counseling to address resolving unexpected birth outcomes. Heal Your Birth Story offers new understanding to the impact of birth on mothers and their partners. Journaling exercises are offered to lead the reader through multiple layers of understanding and healing.

Genres: Psychology

275 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 2015

Reviews

[Ashia Pollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, some of the stories were hard to read but it was definitely helpful for me. Particularly relating to yourself like a good friend when revisiting your birth was helpful. Wish there had been more exercises to do. Editing was a little poorly done but that's just being picky :) I may purchase it for someone else but would want to compare it to another on the same topic.

[Abby Kennamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone who didn’t have the picture perfect birth they imagined, should read this.

[Roots.Branches.Wellness · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for understanding and healing birth trauma. Highly recommended if you are in the birth world. The author @campionmaureen writes that you may know your birth story is unresolved if you- become emotionally overwhelmed talking about your birth - avoid hearing other women's birth stories - dismiss your own feelings about your birth and have to keep telling yourself that you're "fine" - shut down when the topic of birth comes up - obsess about the details of your birth and find it intruding on your thoughts.

"Healing your birth trauma means taking space to experience the overwhelming feelings that weren't available during the actual birth. Expressing these big emotions, rather than suppressing or hiding or denying them, is a powerful tool in working through full self-expression of your birth story."

"Birth requires us to be in touch with our bodies, accept enormous vulnerability, assert our needs powerfully, and build trusting, healthy relationships with our care providers. These are complicated tasks. Even if you have no history of previous trauma, it is likely that at least one of these was a challenge as you prepared for your birth."

"Healing does not mean that the birth becomes something good or that you necessarily feel at peace with your birth. Healing does not mean that you get amnesia. You know that your healing is going well when you notice that it has been a series of good days in a row. You might find yourself thinking about your birth differently or being able to experience the wonderful pieces of the story. Healing means moving your birth story from the present where it is raw and intense and unpredictable to the past where it is over and complete and perhaps sad, perhaps frustrating. You know that you are on the right path when you stop defining yourself by your story."

If you are wanting to heal your own birth story, depending where you are at in your journey, reading this book while going to therapy could be helpful- because diving deeper into your story could create some triggers and trauma reactions.

[Kinsey Phifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who has experienced birth trauma. The author offers many helpful suggestions on coping techniques and ways to heal. I had mixed feelings on the stories at the end. Some of them I found validating while others went on to talk about their healing/ redeeming birth experience after trauma. As someone who had just come off a traumatic experience, I didn't find the "redeeming" story helpful personally. I do love the main message that mother's physical and emotional well being matters.

[Gabsalot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly healing

I LOVED this book. And I read it at the perfect time of my life. It helped me in more ways that I could explain. Ultimately we women and mothers are all powerful no matter how you birthed. And no matter how much you struggled you deserve to heal from it. I highly recommend this book to anyone even those without trauma but are anxious to become mothers.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good read. It had many different birth stories within which sometimes were hard to read but I enjoyed reading every single one as it showed how every individual birth is different, each to their own experiences.

Lots of useful links and information to reach out if someone is struggling with birth trauma.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to read for a range of birth experiences. She includes a good amount of helpful journaling prompts to help you process your experience

[Franki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will be returning to this one

[Kirsten Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad this book exists. Birth trauma is a real thing but there isn't a lot written about it and it's a subject that many people aren't aware of. I got a lot out of this book, both as a birth trauma survivor as well as a doula.

I liked that each chapter had practical suggestions at the end to guide women and their partners through processing through their personal trauma.

I will say that since this book was, I think, self-published, there were some misspellings and grammar issues in a few places, plus some spots that just could have used more editing (I.e. I would not have chosen to end the section of birth stories with a horrendous birth story that had no sense of closure or healing, just raw trauma) but overall it was a great read and super helpful. I'll be recommending it to other moms I know who had difficult births.

[Melanie Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was your birth or recovery less than perfect? Read this book.

Moms and partners with any less than perfect situations getting pregnant, delivering or recovering from birth, including child loss will benefit from reading this book. Make the time, read it while pumping. Validate your experience and learn exercises to help explore and resolve your individual childbirth-related issues.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book would be very helpful for anyone who believes they have experienced a birth trauma. it is also written with helpful info for partners, which I love.

[Gabi Pezo · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing!