STORIES MOTHERS

PTSD is a horribly debilitating condition. Following a traumatic event, sufferers of PTSD are left with a worldview which has been altered profoundly and which often leaves them deeply afraid and anxious, the future may look bleak as they struggle to liberate themselves from the images of the trauma they have endured. This can be particularly hard for women with ‘birth trauma’ because they often suffer these problems at a time when everyone expects them to be happy and positive.  As a result, they often end up feeling guilty and this lowers self-esteem.

The work Help Women and Children is doing in Britain involves showing women the first steps to recovery from their birth trauma by listening to their concerns, organizing workshops, and by creating national and international awareness amongst other things.  The amazing work in the community of Los Huertos in the district of Chorrillos, in the south of Lima, is even bigger. The charity has not only successfully removed families from the vicious circle of poverty but is also dealing with different traumas by being a listening ear, counselling and setting up small businesses for them.

If you would like to get involved as a Partner by giving £2.99 per month, want to sponsor a child in Peru, buy their products, or want to raise money for this charity by doing the Inca trail or going as a volunteer, please send an e-mail to info@helpwomenandchildren.com

STORIES IN THE UK	STORIES IN PERU
Story 1 - I felt so ugly within me, full of anger and grief	Story 1 - when I turned 10 years of age…he raped me
Story 2 - I feel like suicide is my only option	Story 2 - My husband snatched my 9-year old son
Story 3 - I can't ring any of the help lines because I just cry so much I can't talk	Story 3 - My mother went to rescue me after more than 2 years… now I am 11 years of age
Story 4 -  My c-section appears to have been totally unavoidable. My baby was experiencing no distress. I think my doctor just got tired of waiting	Story 4 -  I was so poor that my mother had to give me away to a lady called Alicia
Story 5  - She stuck her fingers into my sore, stitched vagina roughly without asking and I just  started sobbing uncontrollably	Story 5  - I suffered trauma after the birth of my third child

Story 1:I felt so ugly within me, full of anger and grief After 10 days in hospital I arrived home truly believing that I had been the victim of a violent crime, brutally attacked or raped, surviving my injuries and hardly walking, numb with disbelief that I had given birth to a baby.  Paul took over all the physical activities from then on and he carried out all of the domestic chores so well that my respect and admiration for him as a man grew enormously. I wasn’t feeling well, it was like I was dreaming or acting a play where I was performing another character but not me. I couldn’t recognize myself physically or mentally or even spiritually. It felt as if I was another person. Where was that happy, very active, outgoing, talkative, even bossy young lady?  I felt like a cripple, a, huge, ugly and undesirable cripple. I didn't want people to look at me, I felt so ugly within me, full of anger and grief, therefore I never  went out, I couldn’t even open the front door of my house. My bed was my living, my dining and mourning place for several months.  Words cannot describe the sadness and deep sense of loss I felt. Tears just kept welling up any where, everywhere, at any time whenever I remembered the way in which the health staff had treated me.  Every night when I went to bed and for many months after, I relived the whole experience until the details faded. I had to sit up because if I lay down I remembered the people in the operation theatre all around me and the sound of suction and the moving of my body with violence.  I hardly slept. Having my office at home was handy and sometimes I started working from 3am onwards. TO UP

Buy this booklet which contains all the successful stories from mothers and raise money for this charity

Buy Real Healing After Caesarean A Book written by a PTSD survivor.

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