Why Birth Trauma Matters

Dr Emma Svanberg has worked as a psychologist for 10 years, specialising in work with parents and parents-to-be during pregnancy, birth and the early years. During this work, she realised that many clients were seeking her help because they had experienced a difficult start to their parenting journey, or related to their previous experiences of trauma. This led to a particular interest in the transition to parenthood and the experience of birth, and Emma started blogging and using social media to spread awareness of the frequency of these experiences with the hope of letting parents know that they are not alone. In 2017 Emma ran a campaign on social media called #makebirthbetter, gathering women's experiences of birth. This brought her into contact with Dr Rebecca Moore, and together they founded Make Birth Better, an organisation devoted to reducing the impact of birth trauma.