Characteristics of memories for traumatic and nontraumatic birth |
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| Authors: | Rosalind Crawley Stephanie Wilkie Jenny Gamble Debra K. Creedy Jenny Fenwick Nicola Cockburn Susan Ayers |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Psychology, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK;2. Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Meadowbrook, Queensland, Australia;3. Centre for Maternal and Child Health, City University London, London, UK |
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| Abstract: | Evidence for memory characteristic differences between trauma and other memories in non‐clinical samples is inconsistent. However, trauma is frequently confounded with the event recalled. This study compares trauma and nontrauma memories for the same event, childbirth, in a non‐clinical sample of 285 women 4–6 weeks after birth. None of the women met diagnostic criteria for post‐traumatic stress disorder. Traumatic birth, defined by the DSM‐5 event criterion, was reported by 100 women. The ratings of some memory characteristics did not differ between memories for traumatic and nontraumatic birth: All were rated highly coherent and central to women's lives, with moderate sensory memory. However, women who experienced traumatic births reported more involuntary recall, reliving, and negative/mixed emotions. Thus, trauma memories differed from nontrauma memories. In this non‐clinical sample, this is likely to be due to encoding during trauma rather than the distinctive memory profile for memories retrieved by those experiencing trauma symptoms. |
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| Keywords: | autobiographical memory birth postnatal post‐traumatic stress trauma memory |
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