Episode 16: Birth Trauma Affects Everyone with Carla Sargent, Healer and Educator

On this 16th episode of the Birth Like a Mammal™ podcast, Lindsay is joined by Carla Sargent, a former midwife now birth trauma healer and educator. Carla is a true GEM in the birth trauma healing world. Her experience as a midwife and many years supporting Mothers healing from birth trauma bring an incredible dialogue to this discussion today.

Carla hosted Lindsay on her podcast, Healing Birth with Carla, last November where she and Lindsay chatted about Lindsay's doula work, her advocacy work with Exposing the Silence Project, and how women can best set themselves up for a birth they need and want. You can find Carla's podcast on all major podcast streaming networks - Lindsay's episode is #49!

Today, Carla and Lindsay talk about how often birth trauma occurs, what are the factors that typically contribute to birth trauma, the common signs and symptoms of birth trauma in postpartum Mothers, and how birth trauma affects Fathers....a topic not often brought up but a very important component of this conversation.


Key Takeaways:

1. birth trauma is vastly under-reported
2. birth trauma deeply affects Fathers too
3. birth trauma is directly correlated to obstetric violence
4. how to know if you have birth trauma
5. perinatal mood disorders are a consequence of birth trauma from obstetric violence 

Notable Quotes:

• "We have this groomed compliance that we grow up with that serves the system so that we don’t question when we are told we need to have this intervention and that intervention in order to keep our babies safe." - Carla
• "Choosing who is in your birth space - whether it's your support team or your care provider - and where you give birth are the two most important decisions you will ever make during your pregnancy. Those are the two things that will make or break your baby’s birth." - Lindsay
• "Usually their [the Dads] trauma comes from feeling helpless." - Lindsay
• "Your traumatic experiences of birth were not your fault. It was not that your body was faulty, it was not that you weren’t “something enough”, not strong enough, not advocating enough…. it was none of that." - Carla

Carla Sargent is a home birthing mother of three, an ex midwife, an educator, an author, a podcast host, and the founder (in 2015) of her birth trauma support and education business, Healing Birth. Through her holistic and unique Healing Birth work, Carla has helped hundreds of families to find healing after a traumatic birth, and to prepare for a positive and empowering next birth.

Where to find Carla and her work:

Facebook | Instagram |