It’s important to think about health from multiple perspectives. This gives us the ability to zero in on certain conditions and effectively plan for healing. Trauma is just another condition that needs to be healed. Trauma is anything that is considered life threatening. This could be any disaster, whether it’s man made or natural. This could be any form of violence, any accident, and even war. Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is when you have flash backs, or recurrent memories, of a traumatic experience. I found it interesting how women experience trauma two times more often than men, how trauma is a constructed idea, and what is traumatic to one may not be traumatic to others.

Reframing violence and trauma as a health issue could start to change the narrative of violence against women. This will help eliminate stigmas, it’ll help educate women how to care for themselves, and it’ll educate men (who are some of the biggest perpetrators of violence towards women). Women experience a lot of trauma during pregnancy. The trauma they report is mostly loss of control of their body. Women say the common practice of touching a pregnant women’s belly has a chance of triggering trauma. They also reported the idea of having another person inside of them is traumatic, doctors’ visits, and act of giving birth (having people watch her give birth). Women ultimately wanted more control over their pregnancy. To do this, women now are inviting certain people into their circle. These people are usually close family or friends who give the mother complete power. Giving pregnant women more control is one of the first steps in shaping trauma as a health issue. This puts the ball in their court and gives them the final say which ultimately gives them more comfort which in turn should help mitigate stress.

Women can lose trust for maternity care because of past trauma. This is where it’s important to start considering things that are on a macro scale. Violence against women creates stress and trauma. These same women are now damaged in various ways depending on the severity of the trauma. These women are also absolutely expected to bare children because of societal constructed ideology. Women who have experienced trauma have high potential for bonding issues with their baby. Mickey Sperlich and Julia Seng bring up a solid point in the second chapter of their book Survivor Moms, “Some women may feel invaded by their growing baby or by the physical changes of the pregnancy and may relate this loss of control over their body to how they felt when being abused” (46). This creates issues because there is now a disconnect between the mother and the child and both will suffer from this. Giving birth is a traumatic experience in itself. If a mother is already experiencing stress from other events this could lead to a breaking point. They’ll dissociate from the issue just to survive, instead of trying to heal. On the other hand, these children being born are not getting the skin to skin contact and nurturing that these children need to develop. Women’s trauma affects more than just them and reframing the idea that it is a health issue should be a top priority to fighting this issue.

Intergenerational trauma challenges models of health. “…Collective trauma may have profound intergenerational effects that infiltrate beyond easily observed or measured factors that come from the survivors telling and retelling of trauma (or in contrast by the deep silence that is common among survivors” (Intergenerational Trauma). The deep silence challenges health. Survivors often may feel alone or forgotten about. If that doesn’t change it never will and in the case of women if they have children there’s a good chance it’ll be passed on. “…it is clear from studies in other populations and cultures (e.g., survivors of the holocaust during WWII) that effects of trauma can be transmitted from parents to their offspring, just as there is intergenerational transmission of knowledge and culture” (Intergenerational Trauma). Trauma creates health risks during the present and to help heal the condition you need to consider past experiences that have lead an individual to this point. This creates a problem because models of health should reflect a new way to heal. A way that is more sensitive, more attentive, and more open. Health models should be understanding and ultimately need to show compassion during a time when intergenerational trauma is present. Right now, the traditional models now look for an easy quick fix rather than a more calculated approach.

In Haiti violence against women is common, especially sexual violence. Reshaping violence as a health issue would help bring it out into the light. Changing the narrative of violence in Haiti would be one of the first steps in understanding the difficulties of health, illness, and medicine. According to a study published by Lancet in 2006, it found that sexual assault in Haiti was common, “…with up to 35,000 female victims of assault in the area [Port-au-Prince] …” Reshaping this as a health issue will alert the authorities. Just like the HIV epidemic in Haiti, officials should move quickly to heal this condition.