“I'm a Nurse and They Still Didn't Listen”: C-Section Trauma When You Work in Health

After a traumatic caesarean · Part 8 · 14 min read · Published 1 November 2026 · Reviewed 1 November 2026 · Next review May 2027

By Dr Rosemary Listing, PhD (Law) · Medical negligence lawyer since 2013 · Of Counsel, Peter Evans & Associates

If you work in health and something like this happened to you, you may be carrying an extra layer that other mothers don't: the feeling that you should have been able to make them listen, or that you shouldn't be this shaken by something you see at work every week. Neither is true. This is Part 8 of a series; the series guide to c-section trauma covers the wider picture, and our guide for health workers whose baby had HIE covers some of the same ground.

Why I can write this

I have been a medical negligence lawyer since 2013 and have worked on many hundreds of claims, many of them involving birth, and some for people who work in health themselves. I teach health law to future health professionals at the University of Newcastle. My doctorate looked at patterns of failure in medical negligence. Reframe Legal also advises on employment law, which can matter when the care happened at your own workplace. I'm not medically qualified. The information here is checked against the sources listed at the end.

Start with your question

• “I knew something was wrong. Why didn't they listen?” → Not heard
• “Why am I so affected? I see this every day.” → On the table
• “Can I look at my notes on my work login?” → Your records
• “How do I go back to work there?” → Back at work
• “Can I complain about, or claim against, my own hospital?” → Asking questions and how the law looks at it
• “I felt pain during my caesarean.” → “I Felt My C-Section”

On the table: when you know too much

Clinicians who become patients often describe a particular kind of fear. You know what the alarms mean. You notice the anaesthetist's face change. You hear the tone of “can someone grab the registrar”. You may know the people in the room. And you can't do anything about any of it.

Afterwards, your training replays it, frame by frame. Hindsight makes every sign look obvious. You may find yourself auditing your own care, at 3 a.m., the way you would a patient's.

Knowing what is happening doesn't protect anyone from trauma. If anything, it can make the fear more specific. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby lists fear of death and loss of control as risk factors for PTSD after birth. A clinician on the table may feel both more acutely, not less. If you're still reliving it, “I Can't Get Over My Emergency C-Section” covers the signs and the treatments that work.

Not heard: “That's just the nurse in you”

It might seem that working in health would make you more likely to be believed. Many clinician-mothers find the opposite. Their concerns are put down to anxiety, over-familiarity, or “knowing too much”. Phrases I hear again and again include “you're catastrophising”, “you're thinking like a nurse, not a mum”, and “you know we've got this”.

Sometimes, a woman's concern really is anxiety. But a concern raised by a patient, whatever her job, should be assessed on its merits: the observations, the trend, the clinical picture. Escalation systems exist precisely so that early warning signs don't depend on whether the person reporting them is believed.

Being dismissed by people you thought were colleagues can be its own injury. Some clinician-mothers describe it as a betrayal, and it can take longer to recover from than the physical complication. If you weren't believed about pain during the operation, “I Felt My C-Section” explains what should have happened.

What clinician-mothers tell themselves, and what's true

Your records: the right way to get them

If you gave birth where you work, your own records may be a few clicks away on the computer you use every shift. Please don't look. NSW Health's privacy information for staff says staff must not access health information of family, friends or others for personal purposes unrelated to their work, that access is audited, and that breaches can lead to disciplinary action and penalties. Other states and private hospitals have similar rules, and some don't allow staff to look up their own records through work systems either. Check your employer's policy.

You are fully entitled to your records. You just need to request them the same way any patient would. My guide to getting and reading your birth records explains how, and getting your medical records in Australia covers the rules in each state. If a lawyer is helping you, they can request them on your behalf, which some clinicians find easier than putting their own name on a form their colleagues will process.

Back at work: the same corridors

Many clinician-mothers go back sooner than they planned, and some go back to the same hospital, the same unit, or even the same theatre. A few things can help:

• You can ask not to work in certain areas for a while, such as theatres, recovery or maternity. Your manager, your employee assistance program or your union can help you raise it.
• You don't owe anyone the story. “I had a difficult birth and I'm still recovering” is enough.
• Plan for triggers. Alarms, smells, a colleague who was there. Having a plan, even just a place to go for five minutes, helps.
• Use the support built for you. Nurse & Midwife Support offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to nurses, midwives and students across Australia on 1800 667 877. Drs4Drs offers independent, confidential support for doctors and medical students on 1300 374 377.

If your return to work is being made harder, for example by pressure not to raise concerns, or by changes to your role, it's worth getting advice. Reframe Legal also advises on employment law.

Asking questions about people you know

This is often the hardest part. The people who cared for you may be people you work with, eat lunch with, or trained alongside. Asking whether their care was reasonable can feel like disloyalty.

It isn't. Health care relies on people being willing to look honestly at what went wrong. Hospitals have formal processes for exactly this: open disclosure, which NSW's Clinical Excellence Commission describes as a patient right, and incident review. You can ask for a birth debrief, make a complaint, go to your state's health complaints body, such as the Health Care Complaints Commission in NSW, or ask for an independent review. Complaint or claim? explains how these differ.

Asking doesn't commit you to any particular outcome. And an independent reviewer, unlike you, has no relationship to protect.

How the law looks at it

Your job doesn't change the standard. The team caring for you owed you the same standard of care as any patient. In NSW, that is tested under section 5O of the Civil Liability Act 2002, by asking whether the care was widely accepted as competent practice by peers, and most other states have a similar rule. Your own clinical knowledge doesn't make missed signs your responsibility.

Your job doesn't mean you didn't need information. In Rogers v Whitaker [1992] HCA 58, the High Court held that patients must be warned of material risks, judged partly by what the particular patient would want to know. Working in health doesn't mean you were told what you needed to know about your own care, especially if your field is different.

Causation and harm. A claim also needs to show the care made a difference, more likely than not, and caused harm, which can include psychological injury such as PTSD. See time limits and what a claim can cover.

Your employment. Many clinicians worry that raising concerns will cost them their job or their reputation. Some workplace laws protect employees in some situations, but whether they apply depends on the facts. If you're worried, get advice early, before you act.

Your privacy. Your records are confidential, including from your colleagues. If you think someone accessed your records without a work reason, you can ask the health service to audit access and raise it as a privacy complaint.

In my practice

Clinician-mothers tend to come to me later than other women, sometimes years later. They wait out of loyalty, fear of being seen as difficult, and a feeling that they should have been able to sort it out themselves. When they do come, their memories are often unusually precise: the number on the monitor, the time on the clock, the exact words they used to ask for help. That detail is valuable. So is their understanding of how health systems really work. My doctoral research looked at how harm in health care usually comes from a chain of small failures rather than one person's mistake. Clinicians understand that better than anyone. Asking what happened is not an accusation against a friend. It's the question you'd want asked for any of your patients.

Both things can be true

You can love your profession, respect your colleagues and be proud of the care your hospital gives, and still have been let down when it was your turn. You can be the nurse who would have caught it, and the patient whom nobody caught. Holding both is uncomfortable, but it is honest.

The bigger picture

Health workers giving birth in their own services is common, and so is the experience of being treated as a colleague rather than a patient. The NSW Parliament's inquiry into birth trauma heard from many women who weren't listened to, including some who work in health. Clear escalation systems, and a culture where a patient's concern is never dismissed because of who she is, protect everyone.

Support

• Nurse & Midwife Support: 1800 667 877, free, confidential and 24/7, for nurses, midwives and students.
• Drs4Drs: 1300 374 377, confidential support for doctors and medical students.
• Your employee assistance program: free, confidential counselling through your workplace.
• PANDA National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline: 1300 726 306, for you and your partner.
• Gidget Foundation Australia: 1300 851 758, free psychological support for expectant and new parents.
• Lifeline: 13 11 14, 24 hours, if you are in crisis. In an emergency, call 000.

The nurse in the stories is back in recovery now. When a woman tells her something is wrong, she writes it down, word for word, and she calls someone. She says she was always that kind of nurse. Now she knows why it matters.

With care,
Rosemary