Being believed is not a courtesy, it changes the outcome
The strongest finding in this whole tool, and almost nobody knows it.
A study followed 112 women for a year after birth, comparing their recorded pain scores during labor with their mental health afterward.
The pain scores predicted nothing. Objectively recorded pain during labor was not associated with post-traumatic stress at any point up to twelve months.
What did predict it was how she was communicated with. Positive communication from the clinicians caring for her was associated with substantially lower odds of probable post-traumatic stress: an adjusted odds ratio of 0.29 at six months and 0.20 at twelve months. In plain terms, in this group, being communicated with well was associated with roughly 70% to 80% lower odds of trauma symptoms a year later.
This is a single study of modest size, in women already screening positive for psychological symptoms, so the exact numbers should not be over-read. The direction of the finding is consistent with larger work showing that a woman's own experience of her birth, rather than the medical events in it, is the strongest predictor of later trauma.