Rebounding from Childbirth: Toward Emotional Recovery

I thought this was a great book for those of us with negative feelings of our birth experiences. Some real truths are dealt with here and I felt better reading about situations and emotions like my own. The book helped me realize that what I was feeling and people's reactions to my feelings were not at all uncommon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to recover from a negative experience and feels that no one understands. I am so glad I found it!

I had a very difficult childbirth (back labor, young inexperienced doctor AND nurse, long, LONG labor, botched epidural led to general anesthesia for my emergency c-section, etc.).For months I looked and looked to find something that would address my lingering feelings of loss and trauma. This book is the only one that addresses post traumatic stress after an especially difficult childbirth.I guess the biggest thing it did for me is showed me I wasn't alone, and I wasn't crazy! I can't say it "cured" me, but definitely worth the read if you're struggling with your birth experience.

This book represents one-of-a-kind treatment of the emotional havoc that a traumatic birth can have on a mother, and in turn her partner and baby. It is particularly effective in utilizing the birth stories of three women (including the author herself), which come from a spectrum of birth-traumatic experiences: the unnecessary cesearean, the absolutely necessary cesearean, and the highly manipulated vaginal birth. Through the accounts of these three women, a pathway is shown for many to follow in coming to terms with their own birth trauma. Perhaps the most commendable aspect of Madsen's treatment of the subject is that she choses to acknowledge birth trauma and the possible depression that follows as something other than "just hormonal," and even makes a good case for birth trauma being a particular instance of post-traumatic stress syndrome.Besides the much-appreciated acknowledgment (to this reader, at any rate) that birth trauma is not merely unjustified self-pity, Madsen provides very concrete ways of coming to terms with what has happened and pushing on with life. Each chapter has "journal topics" for women to think, write or talk about. She also includes an entire chapter, "Creative Tools for Recovery," which details several more pathways, including art, writing, storytelling, dreams, bodywork, among others.Not only is this book a must-read for any woman who has had a less than ideal birth, it would be highly recommended to people who have contact with new moms, including partners (who may have their own birth stress as well), doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas, counselors, and so forth.