AUSTIN (KXAN) – For many women, pregnancy and new motherhood are described as joyful, life‑changing moments. But for others, the experience can surface trauma — or reopen wounds they thought were long healed.
A researcher at the University of Texas at Austin is testing whether a therapy long proven to help veterans could also help pregnant women — and do it faster than ever before.
“Some of these women are losing their PTSD diagnosis at the end of five days,” said Erin Richardson, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at UT Austin’s Dell Medical School.
‘I come to this work from a place of pain’
Mental health conditions affect up to 20% of pregnant or postpartum women, according to the National Institutes of Health. In a 2024 study, the Maternal Mortality Review Committees found these conditions were “the leading cause of preventable maternal death during pregnancy or in the first year postpartum.”…