Our second international paper has been published!

Our second international paper examined symptom presentation of CB-PTSD across 31 countries. Previous research on CB-PTSD has mostly come from Western countries, and research about other traumas suggest that symptom presentation may vary across countries. Therefore, our study explored whether CB-PTSD symptom presentations are similar across countries, whether symptoms are reported with equivalent frequency, and whether their inter-relationships remain stable across different countries. Results showed Total CB-PTSD symptoms were highest in Pakistan and lowest in Nigeria.

There were similar presentations in Birth-Related and General symptoms across countries, with the exceptions being Malawi and Nigeria.

In most countries, avoidance symptoms were generally the lowest, and hyperarousal symptoms the highest. The exceptions to this were Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.

More research is needed to investigate these differences.

Images are taken from the full paper published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Read the full paper here: Symptom presentation of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress in 31 countries: the INTERSECT study

Citation: Constantinou, G., Ayers, S., Webb, R., Handelzalts, J., Wright, D. B., Grollman, C., ... & INTERSECT Consortium. (2026). Symptom presentation of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress in 31 countries: the INTERSECT study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 122092.