East Yorkshire mother shares birth trauma story after losing fourth child to help others

An East Yorkshire woman who was in and out of hospital after losing her forth child is sharing her story on birth trauma in the hope it helps others.

It comes as there are calls for people not to be afraid of opening up about their experiences of giving birth as we reveal one in 20 new mums develops PTSD from complications.

It's thought up to thirty thousand women a year experience so-called birth trauma - whether that's before, during or after labour.

Having lost four babies - Josephine Smith from East Yorkshire tells us she received poor care while in hospital and felt very alone.

Josephine, said:

"Staff didn't tell me that there could be remains left after they've done the surgery and two weeks later I was still shown pregnant, which meant there were still remains. They brought me back in again and the surgeon met me and he was very much like, what are you doing back here? As if I had done something wrong, as if he hadn't done his job and I was accusing him of not doing his job right. He was just really cold.

"I had to do it alone because it was covid walking into a hospital full of women who are very heavily pregnant, having children, and you are going in there because you've lost your child and then they put you on a day ward full of other people in there for numerous other surgeries and you are sat there waiting for your turn to go down for surgery because you've lost your child and there's just no dignity in that."

Find out more about Birth Trauma, including where you can get support