Traumatic Birth Study

Approximately 6-8% of women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following birth, but the majority go undiagnosed and untreated. Currently, there is no systematic way to identify which women will develop PTSD. Our project will develop a world first screening tool that will help maternity care clinicians identify women at risk for PTSD after birth, so care pathways can be determined early in the critical postpartum period. We will conduct a longitudinal study in partnership with the Mercy Hospital in Victoria to determine the PTSD risk profile of women after they give birth, in order to develop and test the new screening tool.