POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS REACTIONS AFTER EMERGENCY CESAREAN-SECTION

Background. The study aimed at answering the following questions: Do w omen experience emergency cesarean section as traumatic? Do women expe rience any posttraumatic stress reactions or even posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) one to two months after emergency cesarean section? M ethods. Twenty-five consecutive women were interviewed a few days and one to two months after emergency cesarean section. Results. Nineteen (76%) of the 25 women had experienced their delivery by emergency cesa rean section as a traumatic event. One to two months postpartum none o f these women met all the diagnostic criteria of PTSD. However, 13 wom en had various forms of posttraumatic stress reactions and in eight ca ses (33%) symptoms of serious posttraumatic intrusive stress reactions . Conclusions. The emergency cesarean section was in the majority of t he cases experienced as a mental trauma. Although none of the women su ffered from PTSD one to two months postpartum, one third had serious p osttraumatic intrusive stress reactions. The concept of traumatic stre ss thus seems to be relevant for investigations of psychological aspec ts of emergency cesarean section.