Is Complicated Birth One of the Early Childhood Traumas? A Framework for Birthing Trauma, Its Impacts, and Proliferation

Objective: Birthing trauma (BT) (i.e., complicated birth) is an early life complex trauma for the baby and mother that never been empirically examined or considered within the trauma field as a traumatic stressor for the newborn. The goal of current study is to examine its effects on mental health and neurocognitive functioning and explore its proliferation to other life traumas. Method: Current study utilizes a novel developmental-based trauma framework (DBTF) to empirically test assumptions about some of its negative delayed psychosocial and neurocognitive effects in adolescents, and the dynamics of its proliferation to other potentially dependent traumas. A community sample of 410 African American and Iraqi adolescents have been administered measures of traumas (CTS), birthing trauma, PTSD, complex PTSD (CTD), existential anxiety and WISC IV. We controlled for the numerous cumulative stressors and traumas that could potentially be playing a role. .Results: Correlations and path analyses and multigroup invariance found that BT predicted elevated symptoms of post-trauma spectrum disorders, reduced IQ scores, and increased discrepancy IQ index. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender and cultural groups. BT directly predicted other early childhood traumas, and indirectly all other life trauma types, which support BT proliferation hypothesis. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender. Conclusion: Screening for Birthing Trauma as one of the serious early childhood trauma is important. Early intervention with BT victims to provide early psychological and educational help and prevent proliferation dynamics is important. This article is based on a paper accepted for presentation in the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado and August, 2016.