Personality factors and vulnerability to post-traumatic stress responses after childbirth.

CONCLUSIONS: Personality risk factors for negative birth experiences and post-natal PTSS are identifiable prenatally. Maternity care providers could educate women about the unique roles of high perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty during antenatal birth preparation. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Women who expect themselves to be more perfect or who find it more difficult to cope with uncertainty had more negative experiences of childbirth. Women with higher levels of perfectionism were more likely to experience more symptoms of post-traumatic stress during the early post-natal period. Being more perfectionistic continued to have a more negative effect on women's well-being after birth, regardless of whether they had a positive or negative experience of birth. Integrating these findings into antenatal discussion around birth preferences would increase women's awareness of predisposing and obstetric risk factors that partially explain experiences of unsatisfactory births and post-partum post-traumatic stress. PMID: 32808684 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: The British Journal of Clinical Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Br J Clin Psychol Source Type: research