Childbirth is a natural process expected, prepared and imagined by all future parents.
A traumatic experience of childbirth and its consequences is a major problem that is often underestimated for women's health. Some women may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after delivery. The literature reports a prevalence of PTSD in relation to childbirth of 1.3 to 6%.
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress can be triggered by any event, perceived as threatening to the life or physical integrity of the person or a third party and causing intense fear, helplessness and horror.
It may be thought that childbirth, by its psychological and physiological characteristics, can be described as an extreme experience and its experience depends on multiple factors. Thus, an innocent childbirth for caregivers can be traumatically experienced by the woman.
The symptoms described are symptoms of avoidance (inability to return to the scene of trauma, denial of trauma), symptoms of intrusion (nightmares, reviviscences) and symptoms of neuro-vegetative hyper activation (sleep disorders, anger, emotional indifference ).
The development of PTSD following childbirth is a known phenomenon, but minimized and very little diagnosed by obstetric teams.
Therefore, it seems interesting to assess the prevalence of PTSD during childbirth in order to optimize our management, that is to identify patients at risk of PTSD and offer them adapted psychological follow-up.
This study also aims to describe the kinetics of the development of post-traumatic postpartum symptoms and to study the risk factors for the development of PTSD.
