# Emotional stabilization by EMDR after traumatic delivery. Pilot study

Dominique Merg-Essadi, Daria Druzhinenko-Silhan, Anaïs Tourenne, Marie-Frédérique Bacqué

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Dominique Merg-Essadi, Daria Druzhinenko-Silhan, Anaïs Tourenne, Marie-Frédérique Bacqué. Emotional stabilization by EMDR after traumatic delivery. Pilot study. 22nd EMDR Europe Research & Practice Conference - Virtual 2021, Jun 2021, Berlin, Germany. hal-05101490

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Submitted on 23 Dec 2025

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# Emotional stabilization by EMDR after traumatic delivery. Pilot study.

Dr. Dominique Merg-Essadi, Dr. Daria Duzhinenko, Anaïs Tourenne, Pr. Dr. Marie-Frédérique Bacqué.

HUS Hautepierre, Strasbourg; Laboratoire SuLiSoM Université de Strasbourg; Université de Reims Champagne-Ardennes, Reims.

## Introduction:

Experiencing a traumatic delivery affects between 1,7 and 9% of women. The development of such post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have several negative outcomes on the mother and infant quality of life (Simpson et al. 2018).

EMDR could be a promising therapy for the women who experienced a traumatic delivery (Zimmerman, 2017; Chiorino et al, 2019).

## Method:

**Population:** 15 women aged from 26 to 39.

**Inclusion criteria:**

1. French-speaking women

2. At least 3 of the following symptoms :

- fear of death or serious injuries for themselves or their baby

- reoccurring, involuntary, and intrusive upsetting memories of the delivery

- negatives representations of themselves

- continuous negative emotions (i.e. a lot of crying, fear, shame...)

- negative representation of the baby

**Instruments:** Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale, Clinical Interview.

EMDR therapy began the day after delivery for 11 women and between two months and four years after delivery for 9 the other women.

On average, they had 3 EMDR therapy sessions, all scheduled during one month.

## Results:

During and after EMDR therapy, we observed an **immediate emotional stabilization and reassurance**, the **flashbacks elimination**.

All the scores of the **Subjective Units of Disturbance scale (SUD)** decreased from **9 or 10** before EMDR therapy to **0** after EMDR therapy. Graph !

For a third part of them, they expressed a spontaneous request pursue EMDR sessions.

## Conclusion:

EMDR therapy provides **emotional regulation and stabilization states of women who experienced a PTSD after delivery**.

We are now planning a larger study.

## Research question and hypothesis:

Is EMDR therapy relevant for women who experienced traumatic delivery?

**Hypothesis:**

(1) EMDR therapy provides emotional stabilization.

(2) EMDR therapy reduces PTSD symptoms in case of traumatic delivery.

**Sources:**

Chiorino et al. (2016), A model of clinical intervention in the maternity ward : the breastfeeding and bonding EMDR protocol, in Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 10, Number 4,

Simpson et al. (2017), Postnatal post-traumatic stress: an integrative review, in Women Birth, 2018 Oct;31(5), pp. 367-379

Zimmerman et al. (2017) *Pratique de la psychothérapie EMDR – Le potentiel de la thérapie EMDR en gynécologie et obstétrique*. Dunod.