Meghan Trainor has opened up about the recurring symptom that alerted health professionals to the fact she had post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after giving birth.
The 29-year-old singer welcomed her son Riley in 2021. After he was born via Caesarean section, she managed to have skin-to-skin contact for a matter of seconds before her newborn had to be rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with breathing difficulties.
Trainor’s husband, Daryl Sabara, 30, went with him – at which point she was left alone on the operating table for 45 minutes while surgeons stitched her back up.
“In the moment, I was so drugged up, I was calling my mom, and she’s crying on the phone, like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was like, ‘We’re fine.’ And then when I tell people what happened, they’re like, ‘Jesus Christ,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that was kind of messed up, right?’,” she recently told People magazine.
When Trainor returned home with her husband and Riley, she would relive the experience while awake and asleep. There were times when she even thought she was still in the delivery room.
Appearing on the Today show ahead of the release of her new book Dear Future Mama, the singer explained: “I was like, ‘It’s so weird,’ to my therapist and my doctors. I was like, ‘It’s like I’m back in my room.’ At nighttime, when the pain would kick in. I was like, ‘Daryl, I’m still on the table, I know she’s inside me.’”
The experience went on for months before she was diagnosed with the mental health condition postpartum PTSD, which impacts around one in 10 women after childbirth.
She also recalled how her therapist told her that the feeling of pain she was experiencing, even though there was no pain left, was because of “chemical reactions” in her brain.
Her therapist told her: “Something’s off, and we have to open that up and heal that wound.” Trainor – who is pregnant with her second child – said therapy helped her work through it.
PTSD can affect anyone who has been exposed to trauma. People experiencing it might struggle with symptoms including: flashbacks, recurring memories or nightmares, intrusive thoughts or images, a sense of unreality and detachment, and physical symptoms like sweating, trembling, pain or feeling sick.
Some traumatic events that might trigger postpartum PTSD include: a prolapsed cord, unplanned C-section, use of forceps or other interventions, baby going to NICU, or experiencing a severe physical complication or injury related to pregnancy or childbirth.
According to PTSD UK, typical treatment options include EMDR – or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, which involves using side to side eye movements combined with talk therapy – and CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy).
Help and support:
- Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
- Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
- CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
- The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
- Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.