Nerve Damage from Childbirth

Mental Health and My Birth Trauma

I recently completed a new section of the website! If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out the new “Mental Health” section and learn about mental health, birth trauma, and nerve damage from childbirth. Healing from any birth trauma, including nerve damage, is not only a physical journey but also a mental and emotional one. No mom I have spoken to about their injury has come out unscathed mentally. It is essential we talk about this part of our healing too.

So, in honor of the website’s new addition, in this blog post I am going to focus on the mental health aspect of my nerve injury from childbirth.

MICA Month 2022: Standing up for Those Who Can’t

May, the month we celebrate mothers, launches our fifth annual MICA Month. Standing Up for Those Who Can’t is our theme to advocate and to educate globally concerning maternal nerve injury from childbirth awareness. MICA, run by a team of dedicated volunteers, has achieved a great deal since our launch in 2018. We are very proud of the many resources we have developed that are now available to any mom globally suffering from a nerve injury. Our advocacy focuses this year on maternal mental health and specific positions during childbirth as the primary cause of nerve injury. Please celebrate with us our many achievements from the past five years. For I will restore you to health and heal your wounds declares the Lord. Jeremiah 30:17

Holiday Healthy Tips

A mama, a warrior, and an advocate shares a bit about her journey with nerve damage over the holiday season. We are so appreciative to Jodi. Thank you for being willing to share your story with us, thank you for helping others, and thank you for digging into the tough topics.

Wishing everyone an amazing end to December. But, if it doesn’t feel so amazing right now, that is okay too. You are not alone.

MICA Month 2021: Standing Up for Those Who Can’t

May, the month we celebrate mothers, launches our fourth annual MICA Month. Standing Up for Those Who Can’t is our theme to advocate and to educate globally regarding maternal nerve injury from childbirth birth awareness.

Mental Health After Femoral Nerve Damage

An incredibly strong mama shares with us today her mental journey with femoral nerve damage. Her powerful story truly shows that this injury reaches far beyond our lower extremities. It affects every aspect of life after having a baby. Thank you so much for being brave enough to share this story with us and helping so many others by doing so.

Once the physical healing is done, it seems that everyone else move’s on without a second thought. Sometimes it feels like friends and family do not care anymore, and that is understandable simply because they do not know the full struggle of this recovery. Only those who have faced this challenge will ever understand the true impact this injury has on a mother, and coming to terms with what happened, to be okay with your experience, that can feel impossible.

Awareness and Education on “A Midwife Nation”

Jamie is a certified nurse midwife. Her goal is to help women through their pregnancy, birth, postpartum. She loves what she does and feels so blessed to walk alongside any woman’s joy or hardship, and truly believes that together we are stronger.

In February, Jamie posted a great blog post about lower extremity nerve injury that I’d love to share here. I so appreciate her helping spread the awareness and educating about nerve damage in the lower extremities from childbirth. To check out the original post (and her awesome website) go to A Mid Wife Nation. To contact Jamie, email her at amidwifenation@gmail.com.

Nerve Damage Education and Advocacy Update

Today I would like to share huge news for the prevention of maternal nerve injuries! A big thank you to Jennifer Gibson Webb, RN, BSN, CCRN, and Martha Sleutel, PhD, RN, CNS, C-EFM for their tireless work and advocacy to the medical community on behalf of all women who have suffered nerve damage from childbirth in their lower extremities

In May, Jennifer and Martha presented virtually to the American College of Nurse Midwives conference about lower extremity nerve damage from childbirth. Then in November, they virtually presented protocols for the prevention of LENI ( Lower Extremity Nerve Injury) at the AWHONN ( Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nursing) National Conference, which is a national conference for nurses. Jennifer was then was invited by AWHONN to record a podcast detailing her story, along with an anesthesiologist that helped rewrite some change in literature on the subject. This podcast was sent out to all members of AWHONN across the nation. They talk about nerve injuries from positioning and how to prevent them, what to look out for, and more. Check out the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2gCHfucxuiTxnYc0e0xq31?si=29FwkFw8TSit-HxIjbFjXA

A Miscarriage after Nerve Damage

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. It was started in 1988 to recognize the grief of bereaved parents and to show support to the families who have gone through such a tragic loss. As many as 1 in 4 known pregnancies end in miscarriage, but it can still be an incredibly lonely and isolating experience. So this October I decided to open up, share my experience with miscarriage, and hopefully help someone not feel as alone. I do want to warn that this story may be triggering for some.

Deciding to have a second child ended up being a bigger decision than I had originally planned. I had always hoped for 3 kids and never questioned having at least 2. But after the labor and delivery of my first, I wasn’t so sure:

Foot Drop Awareness Day: 2 Years of Recovery

Today’s blog post is by Jodi M, who suffered from severe peroneal and tibial nerve damage in 2016 after the birth of her first child, resulting in foot drop. A huge thank you to her for all her advocacy work.

I cannot believe that this is my third year participating in National Foot Drop Awareness day!! As hard as 2020 has been, I am beyond blessed that my journey has lead me to be celebrating another year of foot drop recovery! I had never heard of foot drop until I sustained a nerve injury giving birth to my first child that resulted in severe damage to the peroneal and tibial nerves in both of my legs. I hope that my story can help others who are dealing with foot drop as well as bring about awareness of maternal nerve injuries.

Keep pushing, keep exercising, keep hope: A story about foot drop

Today’s blog post features the tenacity of Farrah W, a mama who suffered from foot drop after the delivery of her child. Thank you, Farrah, for sharing your story. We wish you continued healing and success.

I joined this page (Moms with Femoral/Peroneal/Sciatic Nerve Damage from Labor and Delivery Facebook Group) years ago after having my first son in England on the Mildenhall Air Force base. I was a new and young mom; I was scared and had only the support of my son’s father. All of my family lived in the United States in Louisiana.

Toward the end of my pregnancy, I was experiencing nerve pain and a lot of health issues, so I was induced two weeks early. I didn’t really have a birth plan – I just had a good attitude/feeling about my birthing experience. I really thought it was going to be so magical and smooth. Everything started fine and I received an epidural with no problems.