Using an emotion-focused approach in preventing psychological birth trauma.

Purpose: This discussion article considers how an emotion-focused approach can be adopted to prevent psychological birth trauma and to optimize perinatal wellbeing for women and their families.

Conclusion: Emotion-focused approaches have a different perspective when compared to other classic psychotherapy methods. This approach may help women to resolve the negative impacts of psychological birth trauma; to prevent posttraumatic stress disorder onset; to lead to better results for mother and baby well-being; and may be cost effective.

Practice implications: Mental health nurses/midwives should receive education about emotion-focused approaches in addition to gaining competence in basic counseling skills so that they can utilize these approaches with women.