September 2004 Update

Welcome to the sixth 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:

Update from Professor Cheryl Beck about her recent article and her planning for another one.
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.
A sister organisation in the UK, the Birth Trauma Assocation was formally launched on 24 August 2004.
Post-natal PTSD will feature in the pre-conference workshops at the New Zealand College of Midwives annual conference next month.

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.

Thank you for your continued interest in our website. As at 7.00 am NZT on 30 September 2004, our site had received 16,921 visits in the last twelve months, an additional 4,598 since our last update on 1 June 2004.

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

A note from Prof Cheryl Beck ...

Second article published

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Due to Childbirth: The Aftermath".

It was published in the July/August issue of Nursing Research.

To summarize briefly the findings, there were 5 main themes of PTSD after childbirth that came out loud and clear from the mothers' stories. These themes were:

Going to the movies: Please don't make me go!,
A shadow of myself; Too numb to try and change,
Seeking to have questions answered and wanting to talk, talk, talk,
The dangerous trio of anger, anxiety, and depression: Spiraling downward, and
Isolation from the world of motherhood: Dreams shattered.

If any of the mothers would like to have a reprint of the article, I would be happy to send it to you. Just email me at Cheryl.beck@uconn.edu and provide me with a regular postal mailing address that you would like the reprint sent to. Again I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the mothers who participated in my study.

A new study on PTSD ...

many of the women who sent me their stories of PTSD whose children were over the age of one, shared briefly with me how difficult the anniversary of their birth trauma is for them each year. Their children's birthdays are a painful reminder of their traumatic birth experiences. As one mother wrote as she reflected on her child's upcoming birthday, "My PTSD still holds a destructive grip on my relationship with my child".

This coming fall I am going to start a second study on PTSD. I would like to study more closely the anniversary of birth trauma so that health care professionals can learn more about this long term grip of traumatic births on women. What is learned from this study will help clinicians provide better care to mothers suffering with PTSD as the anniversary of their birth trauma approaches.

When this study is ready to start, there will be an announcement on the TABS website. Thank you again for all your help with my research.

Cheryl Beck

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.

Birth Trauma Association UK

The BIRTH TRAUMA ASSOCIATION UK was officially launched on 25th August ….. read their article ……

NZ College of Midwives Conference

The New Zealand College of Midwives is holding its Biennial Conference in Wellington from 14-18 September 2004. The theme of the Conference is "The Past: Our Gateway to the Future - Celebrating 100 years of Midiwfery Registration."
In a pre-Conference workshop about post-natal PTSD, two TABS members will be presenting along with Nimisha Waller, who will be providing an update on her thesis on PTSD and childbirth.
See you there, Kiwis!

Select here a previous update (items added to other pages now removed from “Update” pages):

1 June 2003	1 June 2004
1 September 2003
1 December 2003
1 March 2004