While experiences of trauma are well known to impact mental health, emerging research also links them to women's physical health. Dr. Rebecca Thurston's SWAN study has revealed that both childhood and adult trauma exposure are associated with poorer cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health in women, pointing to the importance of trauma to the occurrence of menopausal symptoms, to cardiovascular health, and to women's brain health at midlife and beyond.
trauma
Overlap between birth trauma and mistreatment
Drs. Cynthia Salter, Judy Chang, and Dara Mendez collaborated on a qualitative analysis exploring American clinician perspectives on patient birth experiences looking at birth trauma and mistreatment. This study contributes new insight into maternity clinicians' conceptualization of patient trauma and how their descriptions of birth trauma overlap with mistreatment. Clinicians implicitly connected mistreatment with some patient experiences of birth trauma, even when they were not specifically asked about mistreatment.
Contextual factors connected to the trauma and oppression on indigenous and native women's reproductive health
Dr. Elizabeth Miller recently published findings and a new framework that contextualizes factors connected to the trauma and oppression of indigenous and native women's reproductive health.