Trauma-Informed Tools for Birth Workers

Designed for care providers, this workshop will explore the effects of trauma and offers best practices in supporting people during pregnancy, labor, delivery and parenthood.

Workshop Includes:

• Introduction to understanding trauma and its impact on the brain, mind, body, families and communities

• How to identify trauma symptoms and practical applications for healing

• Ways to make your intake and paperwork more trauma-informed

• Learn tools for helping people when they are triggered

• Take home tools to restore balance, renew hope and resilience in your clients

• Learn how secondary trauma affects care providers and tools for prevention

• Attendees will leave the workshop with tangible and unique trauma-informed skills to use immediately with clients

Register Now

***This workshop is solely for professional development and is not intended for personal healing. Please keep in mind that talking about trauma, even in the context of professional training can be triggering. If you would benefit from processing trauma-related feelings, please consider setting up resources beforehand.

Prerequisite:
None

Why is this important for all birth workers and care providers to know?

Between the COVID pandemic and the considerable racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy-related mortality, people are beginning to speak more openly about trauma, violence and systems of oppression in the United States.

Approximately 70% of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives and roughly 20% of these people go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD (sidran.org).

Therefore it’s likely that one or more of your clients is a trauma survivor, regardless of whether they identify with this term. Clients may come to you not realizing that giving birth and/or becoming a parent may uncover trauma still held within the body. Most people do not expect to have an intense memory, emotion, or physical response while giving birth. Without a basic understanding of the signs and symptoms of trauma, we as health and wellness providers lack the tools and skills to support pregnant people through these experiences.

For trauma survivors, the experience of carrying and birthing a baby has the potential to be overwhelming. Often this causes shame and confusion, and can create additional barriers to healing the original trauma. With a basic understanding of trauma-informed principles, we can participate in creating spaces that empower pregnant people rather than trigger and shame them. Armed with trauma-informed tools, we can begin to build a culture that nourishes healing and fosters resilience.

Scope of the Problem: Statistics

• Between 2006 and 2010, black women were 12 times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

• 1 in 3 women will experience violence in a relationship during her lifetime; however, only 1/4 of all physical assaults, 1/5 of all rapes, 1/2 of all stalkings perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police.

• Each year approximately 1.5 million women in the U.S. are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner. This number includes more than 324,000 women who were pregnant when the violence occurred. (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)

Register Now

This workshop has 3 available full scholarships for BIPOC Birth Workers.  Please contact support@birthdaypresence.com to inquiry.

curriculum created and taught by Tara Tonini