Sarah Baker, a childbirth educator with Purple Lotus Doulas in Maplewood, teaches a birth preparation course that involves a week devoted to recovering from any previous negative birth experiences. Because so many had struggles, Baker created a new class called Healing from Birth.

“For the couples who come into my class, one of the most common things I hear was that they simply didn’t know they had other options,” Baker said. “They felt pressured into doing something they didn’t want to do and did not know how to handle that situation.”

Therapists say more new mothers are seeking help healing from traumatic experiences, but many still do not connect what happened in childbirth to symptoms such as sleeplessness, intrusive thoughts, detachment or outbursts.

“It’s a hard one to identify, because we don’t have a screening tool like we do for postpartum depression,” said Jamie Bodily, whose 13 years of seeing women struggle with traumatic births as a labor coach inspired her to get a degree in counseling. “It’s based on women’s perception of what happened, which she often doesn’t feel like sharing.”

There is a perception, counselors say, that women should just be happy they have a healthy baby in their arms, and it doesn’t matter how the baby got there.