The effects of birth trauma on body image and body acceptance

Trigger warning. In this episode we talk about birth trauma. We don’t go into detail about a specific experience but the conversation about the birth trauma may be triggering for some people. Listen with self compassion and feel free to skip this episode if you need to.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Dr Rosie Pajak, clinical and perinatal psychologist and creator of the Birth Healing Collective. I see so often how pregnancy, birth and motherhood affect a woman's relationship with her body and her body image, so in the Body Resilient Mum Project there’s a big focus on what our bodies can do, rather than how they look. 

But what happens when we feel like our bodies let us down during birth or in the postnatal period? What about when we feel like our body is broken? It can feel very difficult to appreciate what our bodies can do. 

That’s where Dr Rosie comes in! We chat about how growing up we’ve been taught to view our body as something to be mastered, pushed and modified, and how self care, self compassion and a better understanding of our birth experience can strengthen our body image and our body acceptance.

If you'd like to get in touch with Rosie you can contact her through her website https://thebirthhealingcollective.com/ or on Instagram @birth_healing_collective.

Registration is now open for the Body Resilient Mum Project. Learn more and sigh up here www.strongmums.com/brm-project.