The risk to pregnancy after stress disorder

QUESTION: Does post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pose a risk to pregnancy? What is the link?

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This is the type of question that I say brings a smile to my face partly because, to you, it is a simple matter that could be dispensed with a few words.

That, however, is far from the case and as you will see below, you have raised a very deep question with marked, social, historical and mental health ramifications across generations.

First, let us deal with the simple matter of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and pregnancy. The clear answer to the question is that those women who are pregnant and have PTSD have worse outcomes for pregnancy than those without it.

For the removal of doubt, it is crucial to point out that in any community, there are many people with undiagnosed PTSD at any point in time. Chances of being pregnant and at the same time having PTSD are therefore relatively high. For this reason alone, yours is an important question.

It stands to reason that some experts recommend the routine assessment of PTSD in early antenatal visits because early intervention and treatment has been shown to improve outcomes.

The complications known to be common include, ectopic pregnancies, spontaneous abortion, diabetes during pregnancy, preterm births as well as post-natal depression.

What, you might ask, is the cause of PTSD in a society such as ours and have there been studies that have established causes of this type of trauma?

The answer is a most emphatic yes. We know what causes PTSD in Kenyan people and we also know how to reduce the number who suffer from this condition.

Road accidents are a common cause of this condition as is domestic and sexual violence. Politically instigated violence both pre- and post-election have all been shown to lead to high levels of PTSD. Prevention of election-related violence is, therefore, a strategy of reducing PTSD in society.

If one has gone through a life-threatening situation or has witnessed an instance involving a close relative, then you have a chance of developing the full symptoms of PTSD. These might include, lack of sleep, anxiety, and in some cases, feelings of numbness.

In the other cases, one is unable to have the usual warmth one has for a spouse, child, or parent. In other words, your feelings for those you should love are close to the feelings of a deep freezer.

Some people say that the warmth they used to experience in prayer to God is also gone and God seems to have gone away from their lives. Just when one needs Him the most say, after a traumatic experience with cattle rustlers, one is unable to relate to his creator.

At other times, and a deep cause of anxiety is the fact that one keeps re-experiencing the traumatic event.

For example, if one has PTSD because of robbery with violence at home in which a spouse was injured or raped, the patient will complain that the memory of those events keeps coming to mind all the time even as he tries to push them away from consciousness.

The screams, smells of gunpowder and shooting that might have taken place that day, are with the person all day and night leading to the poor sleep pattern and sometimes leading to the abuse of drugs and alcohol in some people.

Others are easily startled and a sound of a tire burst in the distance could lead to a full state of panic.

Your question is, as we have said a very important one because it enables us to look at a most important, and mostly, neglected subject of transgenerational trauma, and in this regard the other important matter of the effect of trauma on the unborn child.

Regarding the first matter, there is adequate evidence that the trauma inflicted by the Transatlantic slave trade, or the Holocaust on the Jewish people have transgenerational effects. In a similar way, Rwanda or any other genocide, and the Mau Mau all have consequences that are with the people for generations.

On the second matter of what happens to babies born by mothers who have gone through the type of trauma in Ukraine today, the answer is clear. The rates of all manner of mental disorders are likely to be higher in their offspring. These include conditions such as anxiety, depression alcohol abuse, among others.

To put the question, you ask into perspective, therefore, trauma visited on mothers, or mothers to be is of great significance not only to this generation but for many generations to come. In our case, therefore, anything we can do to avoid trauma is of great significance to all generations.