Trauma-Informed Birth Support: Resources for Your Empowered Birth Journey

Everyone deserves to feel safe, heard, and supported during birth. This collection of trauma-informed mental health resources is designed to help you better understand your options, communicate your needs, and feel more confident and in control. Whether you have a history of trauma or simply want a gentler, more mindful approach to care, these tools are here to support you every step of the way. 💛🤰✨

Help Lines

Postpartum Support International HelpLine: 1.800.944.4773 -

Text in English: 800-944-4773 |

Text en Español: 971-203-7773

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP 

MGH Center for Women's Mental Health www.womensmentalhealth.org

MGH Postpartum Psychosis Project www.mghp3.org

MGHPDS (MGH Perinatal Depression Scale APP) https://womensmentalhealth.org/research/app/

National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-943-5746

https://mchb.hrsa.gov/national-maternal-mental-health-hotline

English and Spanish professional counselors are available 24/7; call or text

Help is available in 60 other languages through interpreters, as well. Nurses, Doctors, Doulas, and Childbirth Educators are also available.

Lifeline for Moms

https://www.umassmed.edu/lifeline4moms/

https://www.umassmed.edu/lifeline4moms/products-resources/lifeline4moms-materials-for-ob-patients/

Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773 (English) 1-971-203-7773 (Spanish)

Basic support and resources

https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-helpline/

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Online support groups

https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/

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The Postpartum Stress Center

https://www.postpartumstress.com/

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National Alliance on Mental Health

https://www.nami.org/

Well-being Services - Virtual

Headspace is a personal guide to mindfulness. Its library includes hundreds of meditations and exercises for sleep, focus, and movement.

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Koa Health Foundations is a self-service library with behavioral therapy-based programs and exercises on resilience, relaxation, and mindfulness for stress, anxiety, and sleep problems.

To Watch:

Trauma-Informed Perinatal Care & ACES Webinar (1hr)

Nurturing Connections Part 1 - The social, ecological model, ACES, and maternal health (1hr 17 min)

Nurturing Connections Part 2 - The social, ecological model, ACES, and maternal health (1hr 18min)

Empowered Bodies Empowered Minds Part 1 (1hr 24min)

Empowered Bodies Empowered Minds Part 2 (1hr 17min)

Videos: Supporting Recovery with People Living with SUD During the Prenatal, Perinatal and Postpartum Periods(16 topics)

TEDx Talk: Beyond the Cliff (19min)

TED Talk: How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across the Life (16min)

How early life experience is written into DNA | Moshe Szyf (lick your rats!)

To Read:

Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others By: Laura van Dernoot Lipsky 

Hardwiring Happiness By: Rick Hanson 

UC Berkeley Greater Good Magazine: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ 

The Body Keeps the Score By: Bessel van Der Kolk 

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Path to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies By: Resmaa Menakem, LICSW, SEP 

Healing the Soul Wound: Trauma-Informed Counselors for Indigenous Communities by:  Eduardo Duran 

Trauma-Informed Care in the Perinatal Period by: Julia Seng and Julia Taylor 

The Deepest Well by: Nadine Burke-Harris 

Span Good Inside by: Becky Kennedy 

The Biology of Belief: Bruce Lipton

ACEs Information: 

ACEs Too High

ACEs Aware

CDC ACEs

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System ACE Data

ACES Aware Self-Care Toolkit

Tools:  

Trauma-Informed Birth Plan

Protective Factors Worksheet

Repository of Resiliency Measures Emotional Flashback Management Article with Tip Sheet (last 2 pages of article) 

Practice Guide to Implement TIC in Perinatal Period

Coping with anxiety during pregnancy and following the birth: A cognitive behaviour therapy-based resource and self management guide for women and health care providers.

GAD-7 Anxiety Assessment

Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ9

Patient Health Questionnaire and General Anxiety Disorder

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale 1 (EPDS)

(PHQ-9 and GAD-7)

The Four-Item Patient Health Questionnaire for Anxiety and Depression (PHQ-4)

General Self-Regulation Tools

Indigenous TIC Resources: 

Trauma and Resilience in Native Communities:

The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’s Hierarchy (article)