Childbirth as retraumatization: prenatal and postnatal posttraumatic stress symptomatology among women, survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Previous studies indicate that childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has negative physical and psychological long-term effects and that childbirth may retraumatize
women who were sexually abused in childhood due to the women’s association of
the delivery with their earlier maltreatment. Childbirth might also include traumatic elements such as threat or perceived threat to life and/or physical danger to
the woman giving birth and/or her baby. Pregnant women with a history of child
sexual abuse tend to have high anxiety levels during pregnancy additionally to
birth complications, which may cause labor to be painful physically, as well as
emotionally.