March 2004 Update

Welcome to the fourth quarterly update of the TABS website!

This page briefly describes and provides links to the updates located elsewhere in this site, and replaces the Newsletters we produced until a year ago.

Included are four things that we would particularly like to bring to your attention:

The first article by Cheryl Beck has been published.
We are always wanting to expand our list of counsellors within New Zealand. We would especially like to hear from people outside Auckland who can offer appropriate help.
We are featuring the Marce Society.
We are featuring PSI.

We are delighted to notify you of the updates to our website listed below. We make contact with a wide range of groups to promote our message about PTSD being a valid and viable explanation for some maternal mental and emotional health issues. We are very grateful when they mention us on their websites, and we pay them the same courtesy. Many of our links arise from contacts such as these, as well as from other groups who discover and approach us independently.

TABS Study Day: Auckland, New Zealand: 15 March 2004. Click on this link for more details.

A report on the Study Day will be available on this site from 1 April 2004.

Thank you for your continued interest in our website. As at 6.26 am NZT on 29 February 2004, our site had received 1,316 visits since it was launched, an additional 3,899 since 1 December 2003.

Thank you for your continued support and your responses. We are aware that many people who receive our information do not contact us. That is fine, though of course we do like to hear from people - but our main concern is for PTSD sufferers to receive help of whatever kind is appropriate through the information that we are providing.

Thank you again for visiting this site - we hope you will one or more of our updates helpful.

Sue, on behalf of the TABS Committee

UPDATE AT 1 FEBRUARY 2003

MOTHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF TRAUMA - NEW ARTICLE

An article about PTSD by a good friend of TABS and presenter at the 2002 Study Day, Cheryl Beck, Professor of Nursing at the University of Connecticut (USA), has appeared in the January/February 2004 edition of Nursing Research. Titled “Birth Trauma: In the Eye of the Beholder,” it deals with mothers' perceptions of birth-related trauma.
An abstract of the article may be viewed on-line at http://www.nursingresearchonline.com - go to the “Journal Information” listing under LINKS & RESOURCES on the left of the page, then select the “Current Issue” tab. If you wish, you may purchase a copy of the full article from the site.

New Zealand Counsellors wanted

To meet the demand in New Zealand for counsellors who are skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD, TABS wishes to maintain a list of appropriately skilled and qualified practitioners.

TABS is prepared to list such people in return for a fee - that will go towards the maintenance and updating of this website.

If you would like such a listing, please log your request by completing and forwarding the attached form.

Marce Society

The Marce Society is an international society for the understanding, prevention and treatment of mental illness related to childbearing - it has an Australasian branch. Multi-disciplinary in membership, it provides a forum for exchange of information and ideas between professionals concerned with the welfare of women and their families around the time of childbirth. The site includes abstracts of presentations in which TABS took part at the 2001 and 2002.

PSI

The home page on the PSI website begins: “Have you recently given birth? Are you feeling exhausted, anxious, depressed, or just not yourself? If you are you are not alone. Many women are not prepared for the wide range of emotions they may experience after the birth of a child. They often feel sadness, anger, anxiety, or a sense of inadequacy.”

Website updates

These updates now form part of the relevant webpages on this site.