Solace for Mothers: A Online Community for Healing Birth Trauma

I have mentioned before that I suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after what I considered abusive treatment from hospital staff when my child was being born. I struggled with the emotions of anger, blame and hurt for many months. They manifested themselves in intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, difficult functioning and sleeping, avoiding all health care situations and an obsessive need to understand and learn everything I could about my experience--how it went wrong and who was to blame. During that time, I felt utterly alone. I couldn't seem to find anyone who understood or had experienced something like I had, or if they did, they didn't react the same way and didn't understand my reaction.

From that hard place came the power to make a difference and to move forward. I was seeking solace and a community of women who understood. It didn't exist, really, or each group was very small, and not very active. So I set about doing something about it, and that's how the Solace for Mother's Online Community came to be. I'm including more information and announcing it as a new resource for moms in Seattle who may have experienced a traumatizing birth and then experienced post partum depression, PTSD or feelings of hurt and disappointment.

I hope that Solace does what its name implies: brings Solace to the hurt and grieving mothers out there.

This message is to announce a new online discussion board called Solace For Mothers, An Online Community For Healing Birth Trauma. It is for women who have experienced trauma around the process of giving birth. For these women, giving birth has left them feeling deeply disappointed, traumatized, or even violated. We want these women to know that they are not alone, that birth trauma is very real, and that other women have had similar experiences and feelings. We have created an online community as a place for women to begin or continue their healing journey.

In the online community, there are different categories and forums, and the topics covered are issues that often come up for women dealing with birth trauma. It is our hope that women can virtually support each other on their healing journeys in this online community, and perhaps eventually connect with each other in the real world if they choose.

There is an introduction page here; http://www.solaceformothers.org/forum.html, and from this page you can register for the discussion board. Due to the very personal nature of this subject, we have made an effort to keep this community private, and women must register before being able to enter or view posts. If you do not fall into the category of a woman suffering from birth trauma, or if you would like to see a preview of the community before joining, you may visit this link to do so; http://www.solaceformothers.org/preview.html. This link is not the actual community and you will not be able to view members' posts from there, it will simply give you an overview of the topics covered.

We are sending this message out via email and posting it to online communities and to lists in order to reach these women. Please send this message to anyone who you feel may benefit from it.

Sincerely,
Jenne Alderks and Jennifer Zimmerman
Creators and Moderators of the discussion board

Supported by Sharon Storton and the Solace For Mothers team