Building Birth Confidence
Building Birth Confidence is the podcast for anyone who is pregnant after a difficult birth, pregnancy loss, or traumatic experience, and who is scared, exhausted, and trying to find a way through.#
I’m Katie, an NHS Mental Health Midwife and Perinatal Trauma Specialist. Every week I bring you honest, clinically informed conversations about the things that rarely get said out loud: the fear, the guilt, the disconnect, the grief that comes with pregnancy after trauma. And the tools, the understanding, and the realistic hope that can make a real difference.
This is not a positive thinking podcast. This is a podcast for people who need more than reassurance. You deserve support that actually meets where you are.
New episodes every week. Start wherever feels right.
Building Birth Confidence
Why This Pregnancy Feels So Different
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The scan is fine. The midwife says everything looks good. And yet there's this flatness, this going-through-the-motions feeling, like you're present at all the appointments but not quite inside them. In this episode, Katie explains exactly why that disconnect happens after a difficult previous experience, why it isn't rejection of your baby, and what to do with the guilt that piles on top of it.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Why your nervous system keeps a lid on hope and attachment after trauma
- The specific ways protective disconnection shows up, named without judgement
- The grief for the innocent version of pregnancy you expected to have
- Permission to feel all of it, the terror and the hope, the love and the fear
- Why the disconnect doesn't mean you're not a good mother
PRACTICAL TOOL THIS WEEK:
The permission practice, when a difficult feeling arrives, say: "I am allowed to feel this. This feeling makes sense. It doesn't mean anything bad about me or my baby."
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Free Trauma-Informed Birth Plan Workbook | Birthcare with Katie
30-Day Calm & Confident Birth Challenge (free)
https://birthcare.co.uk/30-day-mindset-challenge
Better Birth Anxiety Workbook — The Birthcare Collection
https://birthcare.co.uk/products-list
Birth Without Fear: Essentials for a Better Birth
https://birthcare.co.uk/birth-without-fear
CONNECT WITH KATIE:
Instagram: @birthcarewithkatie
Website: https://birthcare.co.uk/
With compassion,
Katie - NHS Mental Health Midwife | Perinatal Trauma Specialist