Hi, guys. Welcome back to Preview Alliance podcast. This is Sarah. And today we have a very, very special guest and exciting topic. I am going to put a trigger warning on this episode just in case you guys are not

in the space or place to talk about traumatic birth experiences. Because as I know, I've experienced

you myself. And sometimes you're just not in that space. This is a great episode, though,

that if that has affected you or someone you love, that you take a time and pause and really listen

to it or come back to if it's not the place,

but something that everyone needs to hear. And my special guest today is coming to us from Harvard,

Dr. Sharon Dickel. I am so pumped to have you on and to hear you explain something that's so

important to me and so many women is your research on the postpartum traumatic stress disorder research program that you started and are doing. So welcome.

Thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you so much for, you know, making sure we have these discussions

to promote education for patients and providers. Briefly about myself, I'm a associate professor

of Harvard Medical School,

and I am also clinical psychologist. My lab is based at the Massachusetts General Hospital

in which we perform clinical and translational research to better define the kind of biological

signature of PTSD induced by a traumatic delivery

and also develop novel screening tools and early on interventions to hopefully altogether

reduce the odds of developing PTSD and comorbid or core occurring conditions.

I love that.

What led you to focus on this because of trauma, specifically after childbirth?

Because I never thought about childbirth and trauma until I experienced it.

So what led you to be kind of this groundbreaking frontier land of research?

That's a great question, Sarah.

I often ask this question.

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