Empower Ourselves: My story & Word Clouds

Momma Trauma has had her own experiences in the trauma department. No two families will experience birth trauma the same, so my experience may be totally different than your own. But it is because of my experiences with birth trauma and the reactions I received from family, friends and authority figures that we are here. So, I wanted to share with you those experiences. You are NOT alone! You can read my birth story on The (phenomenal) Guggie Daily blog. (Note: Story may contain triggers) My dear friend Guggie played a very important role in my healing process early on by listening and posting my birth story for others to read. My story involves a very controversial term: "Birth Rape." I don't often use that term, and will write a blog post on it soon. It's inflammatory, and it means different things to different people. Please be respectful to myself and others. I have come to terms with what I call my "Birth rape" and subsequent birth trauma & ptsd. That is how I chose to identify my situation and it's okay if you don't agree with that term. Now, I usually use "violated." I was violated, seriously violated to the point I got ptsd and had major issues in the bedroom and triggers throughout my life for a while. I use that when I don't think people will really understand, so if you read through the story and get angry with my choice term, substitute the term "birth rape" for "violated" and you'll find it does the same thing for you. You know, we don't often want to "spew" these bad experiences for everyone to read. But if someone doesn't, nothing will ever change. This is a serious epidemic we have on our hands and without SERIOUS change, nothing will ever be done.  I can't stress that enough.

What empowers you? What will make you feel better about the experience you've encountered? For me, I need to own what happened and I am not to that point yet. I'm still healing. I am angry, bitter, sad, confused, and a myriad of other emotions. It empowered me to make the word cloud you might have seen on our Facebook page. It empowered me to see all those words that I bottle inside me all squished together and thrown out there for all to see. I would encourage all of you to make your own word cloud for healing. If you're a birth trauma supporter, make a word cloud to encourage yourself to be the supporter you'd like to become or even one to encourage those of us you might work with! Please share these word clouds with me! Send them to my email, my Facebook inbox or share it on the wall!