The Somatic Experience of Birth: Why Your Body Remembers More Than You Think

By Bobbi Barber, LMHC, BCBA, PMH-C, CCTP

Birth is one of the most profound experiences a human body can go through. And even when a birth is medically “easy”, well supported, or planned, it still leaves a deep imprint on the body. And not because something went wrong but because birth itself is intense, sensory, disruptive, and full of moments where control shifts away suddenly.

In this blog, I want to reframe birth in a way that I believe helps everyone feel more understood.

Birth is always a somatic event.

• not just an emotional one

• not just a medical one

• not only traumatic births - all births

Let’s talk about what that really means

Your Body Experiences Birth - Even When Your Mind Labels it “Fine.”

Birth involves:

• strong sensory input - touch, sound, monitoring, smell, procedures, thoughts

• rapid hormonal changes - flood of adrenaline, cortisol, and oxytocin

• intense physical demands

• emotional overwhelm

• uncertainty

• and often…a sudden loss of control

Even when everything goes “according to plan,” the experience is felt in the nervous system. Routine interventions like inductions, epidurals, exams, C-sections, fetal monitoring - can disrupt the natural rhythm your body expected to follow.

None of this means a birth was “bad.” It means the body remembers every part of what it lived through.