Alicia Woodfield listened to soft music during the birth of her son, hoping her first child would be calmly welcomed into the world. or signup to continue reading But in the months after Archie was born acoustic music came to haunt her, serving only as a reminder of his traumatic birth. "I was just a mess," Mrs Woodfield told AAP.
"Music would just take my mind back and I would relive the whole thing in my head." Mrs Woodfield gave birth in a NSW hospital in January 2022, when she was unexpectedly induced, pressured to have an epidural and had an unplanned and unwanted caesarean section. Afterwards, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and sought help from a counsellor at the Gidget Foundation to cope with her second pregnancy.
Giving birth to daughter Cleo in October 2023 was a positive and joyful experience, after therapy gave her the strength to advocate for herself in hospital. "I was like ..
. I'm not going to have someone just make these decisions for me." The recent NSW birth trauma inquiry, which received thousands of submissions from around Australia, heard many similar stories about the lingering harm when informed consent is lacking.
Women told of sudden and highly invasive procedures during and after birth, humiliating interactions with unknown medical staff and unwanted inductions or caesarean sections. Informed consent is the theme of birth trauma awareness week, two months after the inquiry's final report found consent should be a priority in me.