By Arlene Harris, The Irish Times, February 7, 2020
While it may be an innate and mainly joyful event, many pregnant women feel anxious at the thought of going through labour and can suffer emotional and physical distress during the delivery itself. And there is one group of women for whom there is an extra level of trauma associated with the arrival of their unborn child – those who have been victims of sexual assault.
Hazel Larkin is a sexual abuse survivor and over the coming months will be running courses for midwives and health professionals to make them aware of the extra care and attention which is essential to help women such as herself cope with what can be a seismic event in their lives. “I will be running courses for healthcare providers to educate them on the provision of trauma-informed care for women who were sexually abused as children – with the awareness that much of what I’m presenting applies to men also,” says the Dubliner.
“I developed them [the classes] because women who have histories of child sexual abuse have different needs to other women during pregnancy and childbirth – yet the need for trauma informed support is not addressed during their training in Ireland – so I offer it. There are physiological differences [between women who were abused and those who were not] – our labours are inclined to halt at 4cm, for example – as well as needs we have around the language used. I also go through the legal responsibilities of mandatory reporting, as it applies to midwives, doulas, doctors and nurses.
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