Rebecca Saunders (00:03.864)
Hello and welcome to the EMDR Doctor podcast. This is a podcast for clients where I share and explore information about all things EMDR.
My name is Dr Caroline Lloyd. I'm a mental health GP and an EMDR practitioner. And my goal is to demystify EMDR or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing to help you on your EMDR journey. EMDR is a powerful therapy which helps to reduce the distress from difficult memories. And my goal is to make it accessible to everyone. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hello and welcome back to the EMDR Doctor podcast. I am
Coming to you from Wurundjeri land and I'd like to pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging. This week's topic is EMDR and pregnancy. In general, I am a little bit removed from the topic of pregnancy nowadays. Those days are far behind me, although I remember them well, mainly with fondness.
While my life has moved on from the childbearing phase, I do get a bit excited about looking after pregnant women as it's often such a special time in people's lives. But not all pregnancies are happy times and there are a multitude of reasons for this. Of course, pregnant women go through the same stresses as non-pregnant women.
but they do have an extra level of health stress that they need to take care of. So this alone adds a layer of complexity to life. Pregnancy itself can be pretty emotionally fraught for lots of reasons, aside from just the hormones, which make it bit of an up and down journey for a lot of women. But maybe fertility itself was a difficult journey. Maybe previous miscarriages or pregnancy loss or perinatal loss of a baby, which
Rebecca Saunders (01:57.432)
could be one of the hardest times that a family has to go through. Maybe IVF, which can be exceedingly intrusive and hormonally difficult, not to mention the difficulty of unsuccessful transfers and the despair and grief and loss that comes with that next period. Or on the other side of things, unexpected pregnancies can be a source of anxiety. Or maybe single parenthood is looking like a newly considered option.
Or maybe there's been birth trauma from previous pregnancies that's creating a lot of distress. Lots of things don't go to plan during the birthing process. So all of these things and maybe about a million more can be great reasons to seek EMDR during pregnancy. I've seen a number of women who've had difficult birth experiences when things haven't gone to plan.
And this has really impacted severely upon their ability to even consider getting pregnant with a second or a next baby. It's very hard to go voluntarily towards a pregnancy when the last pregnancy resulted in a life-threatening event, perhaps for the mother, or whether there's been some physical injury that hasn't resolved and women are still living with the effects of the pregnancy or the delivery.
And it is really distressing when the young mum is not only sleep deprived and exhausted, but is also struggling with a changed body, a new role as a mother, a change in her role with work and parenthood. And she is also traumatized and can't leave behind the difficulties or the guilt or the sense of incompetence or failure at not having had the birth plan go the way that everybody imagined and hoped for.
So there is a great sense of failure sometimes when we can't all have a natural vaginal delivery with everything going easily and the results being what we had expected. And also nowadays there's such a great pressure to get back to that pre-pregnancy body in two weeks.
Rebecca Saunders (04:12.29)
This get your pre-pregnancy body back in seven days with regular seven minutes of exercise and just eating these two superfoods like really unrealistic expectations for women post delivery. And then sometimes even after you have the baby and everything's okay, the grandparents become much more involved in the young family's life. And whilst this sometimes
can be a really amazing and beautiful thing. Occasionally, it can reignite some really difficult memories from childhood that can become really problematic. So all of these issues and traumas are very valid and very amenable to change and resolution with EMDR. I have worked with women with all of the presentations that I've just mentioned and resolved these difficulties. And the feedback that I get is really heartwarming. Women say,
I feel like I have myself back again or I can now relax and enjoy my baby or I know that I have the strength to cope with whatever the next pregnancy brings. And this is incredibly joyful for me to be able to bring that peace and calm at a time when they really need that and really helpful for the woman to just have that increased sense of calm around her baby and her life and another upcoming pregnancy perhaps.
So the big question that I get asked often about EMDI during pregnancy is, is it safe? Yes, yes it is safe. And pregnancy is a time when everyone involved is hyper-focused on safety. No alcohol, no medications, moderate your exercise, eat this, eat that, don't eat the other thing, don't dye your hair, don't jump up and down, don't, a lot of information.
and misinformation about safety in pregnancy. And we all want to be safe because babies are so precious and so vulnerable and so tiny. So yes, safety is important. And also just be bit careful about where you get your information. Make sure that you're following sound medical advice and not just something that someone on the bus told you. So EMDR is safe in pregnancy.
Rebecca Saunders (06:38.274)
There have been studies to back up me saying that. So there have been a few studies now that show the benefits of EMDR in pregnancy and that these benefits can be really major and that there is no risk of doing EMDR in pregnancy over that of doing any other therapy or any other activity. I will just quote one recent study that was done in the Netherlands.
which compared the outcomes of pregnancy for women who had a fear of delivering their baby. One group of women got EMDR and the other didn't. And the group who had EMDR had a seven-fold smaller chance of having an induced labour and the same chance of having a cesarean. And so importantly, the baby and the mother health outcomes
were the same. So there was no adverse events from doing EMDR in pregnancy. And this is not the only study showing this outcome. It's been replicated a couple of times, which means that this data is reliable. The more studies we have that confirm it, the more reliable the data is. So this once again showed that there was no adverse events that happened as a result of the EMDR during pregnancy.
And in fact, it decreased the mother's risk of having or the mother's chances of having an intervention in pregnancy, like an induction by a factor of seven, which is really quite extraordinary. Other, just to mention this, other studies previously have showed a decrease in the cesarean rate for women who have EMDR during pregnancy. And that probably results from a
diminished fear of the delivery. So more ability to contemplate going ahead with a normal vaginal delivery. So when in pregnancy is the best time for EMDR therapy? So I don't know of any data to advise us on this finer point, but personally, I would say the sooner the better. So women deserve to enjoy their pregnancy. They deserve to be able to relax with it.
Rebecca Saunders (09:00.098)
And the less fear they have around the pregnancy, the better they will feel and the more they will enjoy the pregnancy. And the other question I get is, does crying hurt the baby? And the answer to this is no. Crying is a very natural thing. Although it feels maybe sometimes not so nice to cry, sometimes it does feel nice to cry, but certainly the hormones that are produced after crying are quite sedating.
and they help you feel better. crying itself does not hurt the baby. Some people are worried about the cortisol produced during an EMDR session. So as we process a memory, emotions do come up. It can be upsetting while we are doing the processing and people do cry. But by the end of the session, all of this emotion will be resolved.
And then the blood pressure and the heart rate and all the vital signs, etc. go back to normal levels. So having a temporary increase in cortisol and distress and then having it resolve is a much better option than constantly having fear and distress. And for this higher level of cortisol that's associated with fear and distress, for that to be a regular thing for the whole of the pregnancy. So EMDR does reduce cortisol
after the session, it increases it temporarily during the session and then it goes back to normal after the session and in fact after that fear and distress is resolved it goes back to a lower level. So one study has recommended EMDR during pregnancy saying that the benefits to the unborn baby in the decrease of cortisol and the stress hormones is a factor in in favor of doing EMDR.
So I'm going to link in the show notes to the papers that I've quoted here. So for those people who are interested in reading the academic papers and diving deep into the detail, please have a look at those. So I guess the take home message is that you deserve to have a peaceful, calm, happy pregnancy. You deserve to enjoy your pregnancy. And if you have
Rebecca Saunders (11:17.742)
previous experiences or fears about your pregnancy that's preventing you from enjoying this exciting time of your life. Please do get help. Please do get yourself in to see an EMDR therapist. It is perfectly safe and really beneficial. So if you would like to participate in my online group EMDR program, please feel free to reach out to me directly or go to my website, EMDRdoctor.com.
AU forward slash heel and I have a group starting on the 21st of November and there will be more groups early in the new year so if you miss out on this one this time around there will be further opportunities in the new year. So until next week I hope you have a great week I hope this has been helpful to you bye for now.
