The Earliest Trauma: The Unspoken Impact of Medical Trauma

Thousands of children every year are brought into the world in traumatic ways that often times are seldom discussed or processed following the event. These traumatic experiences may vary from a child being born with the umbilical cord around his neck with vital oxygen withheld for seconds to minutes, or a labor that is prolonged, stressful, and unusually painful, to pre-mature birth, separation from the primary care giver for medical purposes, or even surgery. Children who experience traumatic events as their first events of life are typically traumatized in two ways if not more. The first being the experience itself: Whether it