TOPLINE:

Childbirth-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (CB-PTSS) affected up to 13% of mothers and 1.3% of co-parents. Subjective birth perception was a key risk factor for CB-PTSS in both. Maternal symptoms were driven by prenatal depression and previous trauma, and infant complications during birth specifically drove the risk in the co-parents.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal cohort study involving 350 mothers and 211 co-parents (210 men and 1 woman) in Switzerland to assess prenatal, childbirth-related, and postpartum risk factors for CB-PTSS.
• Prenatal risk factors were assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy, and childbirth-related risk factors and postpartum mental health were measured between 6 and 12 weeks after delivery.
• The study used the French version of the City Birth Trauma Scale to measure the total score of CB-PTSS and two symptom clusters: birth-related symptoms (BRS) and general symptoms (GS).
• Hierarchical regression models were employed to specify the variance explained by prenatal, childbirth-related, and postpartum variables for both parents.

TAKEAWAY:

• For mothers, the final model explained 56.6% of CB-PTSS variance (P < .001), with previous trauma, prenatal depressive symptoms, the perception of traumatic childbirth, support from healthcare providers, and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms emerging as significant predictors.
• For co-parents, the final model explained 45.5% of CB-PTSS variance (P < .001), with infant complications during birth, the perception of traumatic childbirth, and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms emerging as significant predictors.
• Childbirth-related risk factors explained the largest portion of the variance for BRS (38.8% for mothers and 33.5% for co-parents), and postpartum risk factors primarily drove GS (56.2% for mothers and 53.2% for co-parents).
• The two-factor structure of CB-PTSS showed differential risk factor patterns, with childbirth-related risk factors primarily contributing to BRS and prenatal and postpartum risk factors primarily contributing to GS.

IN PRACTICE:

"Identifying risk factors involved in the development of CB-PTSS can help establish a checklist for these various vulnerability factors that should be included in a perinatal assessment and monitoring of parents who might be at risk to develop CB-PTSS," the authors wrote.

"The results of this study reinforce these [perinatal mental health screening] recommendations but also add that this systematic assessment should not be limited to monitoring the mental health of the mother, but also that of the coparent," they added.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Valentine Rattaz, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. It was published online on February 25, 2026, in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

LIMITATIONS:

All variables of the study were self-reported, which potentially introduced social desirability or recall bias. The sample was predominantly of middle-to-high socioeconomic status, which may have limited the generalisability of the findings to more diverse populations. The study was conducted in a specific Swiss healthcare context in which health insurance coverage is compulsory and nearly all women deliver in hospital settings, which may have limited the applicability to other healthcare systems worldwide.

DISCLOSURES:

This study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.