Approximately 6-8% of women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following birth, but the majority of these vulnerable women go undiagnosed and untreated. Currently, there is no systematic way to identify which women will develop postnatal-PTSD. Our project will develop a world first screening tool that will help maternity care clinicians identify women at risk for PTSD after birth, so care pathways can be determined early in the critical postpartum period. Momentum is a longitudinal study in partnership with the Mercy Hospital for Women and Frances Perry House in Victoria to determine the PTSD risk profile of women after they give birth, in order to develop and test the new screening tool. The project recruits pregnant women attending Mercy Hospital and FPH in their second trimester and follows them up at time points shortly after birth.

Momentum is not a treatment study. If you believe you have PTSD symptoms from a traumatic birthing experience, or any other trauma experience, and are seeking a treatment, we have other no-cost treatment trials which may be of interest to you.

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