Why You Keep Replaying The Birth In Your Head

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Do you keep replaying your birth over and over in your mind after a C-section?

Flashbacks, intrusive memories and constantly replaying traumatic birth experiences are incredibly common after difficult births, especially after emergency or traumatic C-sections.

In this episode of The C-Section Healing Space, I talk about:
• Birth trauma flashbacks after C-section
• Why your nervous system stays in high alert
• Why your body keeps replaying the experience
• Anxiety and hypervigilance after traumatic birth
• Why pregnancy or hearing birth stories can trigger you
• Grounding techniques for birth trauma
• EFT tapping and nervous system regulation
• Gentle ways to begin emotional healing after C-section

After having 3 C-sections in 5 years, including traumatic birth experiences and a failed epidural, I know firsthand how exhausting and isolating birth flashbacks can feel.

This channel is a calm, soul deep healing space for women recovering emotionally, physically and energetically after C-section.

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• C-section recovery
• Birth trauma healing
• Nervous system healing
• Somatic healing
• Emotional healing after birth
• Meditations and reconnection rituals

#CSectionRecovery #BirthTrauma #PostpartumHealing #TraumaticBirth #CSectionHealing #Flashbacks #NervousSystemHealing #SomaticHealing #EmotionalHealing #PostpartumMentalHealth



Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please always seek advice from your doctor, midwife or qualified healthcare professional regarding your physical or mental health, recovery or medical concerns. Individual healing experiences vary, and this content is intended to support, not replace professional medical care.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This one can feel really jarring, right? My experience with replaying the birth over and over, or we can call them flashbacks. It's a bit of a technical term for those that have experienced something traumatic. So as a out-of-the-gate reason that you are replaying the birth is most likely because it was a traumatic experience. Mine would happen when I was just doing really mundane things. So I remember one time washing the baby bottles in the sink and then replaying the epidural in my mind, the one that went wrong where I thought I was gonna die. When I came back to myself, the water was cold and it was warm to start with. So I'd been there for a bit. You might find that it happens when you're hoovering, tidying up, you'll just be going about your business, and then something will flash in your mind. Another time that you might experience it is when you want to go to sleep. You go to lie down, and the birth just starts to be playing, the whole thing starts to be playing, and then you can't sleep, and it's affecting your sleep. You're absolutely not alone, and there is nothing wrong with you if this is happening. It means that your body has not processed the experience, and it's kind of like a knock on the door letting you know that we've still got stuff here. Your body's like, we've still got stuff that we need to process here. Your body, your nervous system doesn't feel safe. So what it does is wakes you up with these flashbacks. It wants you to like don't forget we went through that experience and we haven't processed it. Like, don't rest, don't put your guard down. Because if you do, what if it happens again? This is what your body is thinking. So it keeps replaying, keeps replaying, keeps reminding you, like it's keeping you on high alert. As when you've had a traumatic experience, that's what your nervous system will do. It will go into high alert because that's the only place it knows to keep you safe. Because when you let your guard down, this is what happened. So it needs to keep you in high alert, and one of the ways it can do that is to get you to continue to replay and replay and replay this birth and the experiences within it, which is really inconvenient for our lives. We don't want to be going food shopping and then thinking about the birth. Because then when we do that, it then affects our mood, and you might find that the birth replays in your mind. That then you get like a low mood because it doesn't feel good. Bringing our bodies back to safety is what's going to support having less of those flashbacks, replaying the birth in your mind. Your body needs to know that it's safe again because it's still in that moment, it's still in high alert. And one of the things that you can do is, and I am not an EFT practitioner, but tapping is something that I've used and continue to still use. And it's just a way to bring your body back into some regulation. There are different places that you can tap here or here or here, here, here, here, but I like to tap here. So when I feel emotions building, and this isn't actually just for having flashbacks, you can use tapping anytime that you feel overwhelmed or anxiety, and I just say to myself that I'm safe, that I'm not there now, that I'm not in that birthroom, that I'm home, and that everything around me is safe, that I'm safe now. And I find that just doing that little tapping just for 20-30 seconds just brings everything down and it brings me back into the present. And that's something again that you want to try to do is bring yourself back to the present because as you're replaying this, you're obviously in the past, you want to bring yourself back into the present so you can also do things like putting your feet on the floor and just really feeling your feet on the floor. So this would be grounding, really just about presence, but coming back to now because your mind is taking over and it's taking you to somewhere else. You want to bring it back into the present so you can also feel the floor. Another one that you can do is the 5-4-3-2-1 method or technique, which is when you're in a moment of feeling maybe the birth replaying, or you're feeling anxious or a bit overwhelmed, you can look for five things that you can see, four things that you can hear, three things that you can touch, two things that you can smell, and one thing that you can taste. When you take yourself through that, you should be able to bring yourself back into the present again. Another time that you may replay the birth is when you hear that somebody else is pregnant or you hear that somebody else has given birth, it can just bring you straight back into that place. And I've spoken to moms before where they felt quite guilty and a shame around the fact that they feel that way because they want to be happy for their friend or colleague or whoever it is, but they can't help but just start replaying their birth when they hear about someone else being pregnant or giving birth, or if you see it in the media, or a celebrity, or something like that. Another time might be where you hear that somebody has had a vaginal birth and it's gone really well, or a C-section and it's gone really well. I remember my friend after I had my C-section, which was really difficult postpartum. I couldn't get up for days, and it was just really, really very, very difficult. And I remember my friend had her baby, and she said that she was walking the dog the next day. She had a vaginal birth, and she said she was working walking the dog the next day. And I remember just thinking, how? Why? Why me? Why am I still laid up in bed, can't move, can't lift my baby? And my friend is walking their dog the next day after birth. So don't feel guilty or ashamed about those feelings. These are really normal feelings to have with the experience that you have had. Really normal feelings. You won't replay this birth over and over for the rest of your life once you begin healing. And one really simple way that you can do that is to two easy ways I've just thought about it. Two ways that you can do this. One is you can write about your birth story if you haven't. Just really just write down everything that happened and how you feel about it. Probably you may not have ever done that before. Take the time to do that and see what comes up. And you can also take five minutes, lie down on your bed, put your hands on your tummy, set your phone for five minutes and just breathe. And just focus on that area and see what comes up. And then you can journal on what comes up, and then just start working through this. This is all part of the process. There's a whole process that it takes for healing. It's there is no rush, and it doesn't matter when your c-section was, whether it was two years ago or 20 years ago, you're not too late to start this healing, and healing isn't always linear, and there's no rush. So you can take your time five minutes at a time. Do you share with me in the comments your experience? Let me know if you've had flashbacks or you replay the birth. Let me know when you had your c section. Let me know if you have any questions on this. This is what the c section healing space is here. This is what this channel is for. I want so many more women to be able to find this space so that they know that they're not alone with their feelings. So do please like, do subscribe, and do share with another c section mum.