Daniels, Arden-Close & Mayers: Partner PTSD (BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, 2020)
1% of fathers get PTSD. Partners are traumatized too.
1% of fathers develop clinical PTSD from witnessing birth. 90% of fathers attend. That is 6,000-7,000 men/year in the UK alone. Partners report relationship breakdown and self-blame.
Daniels and colleagues published one of the few studies examining birth-related PTSD in partners, specifically in fathers, in 2020 in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. About 1 percent of fathers who attended their partner's birth met clinical PTSD criteria afterward. In the UK, where roughly 90 percent of fathers attend the birth, that 1 percent works out to between 6,000 and 7,000 men per year.
The most common features described in the qualitative data were feeling helpless watching what was happening, self-blame for not protecting their partner, and breakdown of the relationship in the year following. The study is small and the field is underdeveloped, but the data argue that the trauma extends beyond the woman giving birth. Partners are also affected, and they are even less likely to be screened or treated.
1%
Fathers with clinical PTSD
90%
UK fathers attending birth
6-7K
Affected UK men per year
2020
Publication year
Why it matters
When a partner walks out of a delivery room with clinical PTSD and no one screens for it, the trauma load on the family unit goes uncounted. The studies that exist suggest the partner effect is real and routinely missed.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.