Evaluating a midwife-led consultation for women after a traumatic birth experience: Preliminary results

Approximately 9 to 50 % of women report a traumatic birth experience and 12 % develop childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (CB-PTSS). A recent study using a postpartum midwifery-led counselling session showed promising results in reducing CB-PTSS, but more evidence is needed.

The main objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of a midwifery-led counselling session 6 weeks post-partum or later, on depression and CB-PTSS.

The pre-post-intervention study, including 159 women, took place in a Swiss 18 university hospital. It was designed as a healthcare service quality project and therefore was therefore not registered a priori in a clinical trial registry. Ethical approval from the institutional board was obtained (n° 2020-06). A midwifery-led counselling session, six weeks or more after birth, allowed women to discuss their childbirth experience and to receive additional information about childbirth. Women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) two weeks before and three months after the consultation.

Results showed a significant decrease in depression and CB-PTSS, and in cases with probable childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis (CB-PTSD): 24.7 % (36/146) before counselling versus 6.3 % (5/80) three months after (p < 0.01). The session was rated as extremely/very satisfactory by 91 % of women and extremely/very useful by >87 % of women. No associations were found between depression and CB-PTSD scores and obstetrical or neonatal data.

A midwifery-led single-session offered to women 6 weeks or more after birth seemed to be associated with a decrease of depression and CB-PTSS. However, the attrition rate (49 %) made definitive conclusions difficult. More research is needed with a larger sample, a randomized design, and a wait-list control group to consider the effect of time on depression or CB-PTSS.