To understand better the impact of violence on the health of girls and women, it is important to focus on areas where gender identify, bodily experience, and psychological issues overlap. Sexual abuse trauma is known to cause long-term emotional, interpersonal, and physical effects. These include post-traumatic stress disorder, which causes numerous physiologic alterations. Hypothesized impacts of childhood trauma on childbearing include hyperemesis, excessive nausea, preterm contractions, substance abuse, post-dates gestation, dysfunctional labor, failed lactation, postpartum mood disorders, anxiety, weight problems, conflicts with providers, and problems with attachment. This exploratory, mixed method study will answer two questions: Do these women have more problems during childbearing? Do they link the problems with the prior abuse? Methods combine secondary statistical analysis of a perinatal database, questionnaire measures of trauma exposure and PTSD, and qualitative interviews of a subsample of abused women. Results of this exploration will help define the problems with women's input into that naming and conceptualization. This study will point toward future research which considers both physiologic and psychosocial effects of trauma on childbearing.
| Seng, J S; Oakley, D J; Sampselle, C M et al. (2001) Posttraumatic stress disorder and pregnancy complications. Obstet Gynecol 97:17-22 |
