As shown in the analyses, none of the variables with group differences were associated with mental health outcomes, which led us to assume comparability of samples concerning traumatic stress and psychiatric outcomes.
A good positioning of the child usually requires the presence of at least 3 attendees: one to hold the child, one to perform the LP, and a third person to serve or help the performer In a paediatric population, LP causes anxiety and stress [ 2], leading to a high rate of samples being traumatic or hemorrhagic.
The differences in results may also be linked to the wide range of traumas included in the latter samples (for example, the inclusion of traumatic death of significant others), or the long-term effects of the trauma and/or PTSD symptoms on important life areas such as employment, significant relationships or other resources (Hobfoll, 2002).
Other reasons for this high prevalence of post-partum PTSD might include: the instrument used to measure PTSD, the sample characteristics [ 5], prevalence of traumatic birth experiences, the way that health care professionals within hospitals treated the women, and finally the high rate of emergency cesarean section.
Initial analyses examined overall sample characteristics and the two types of traumatic exposure differed by gender.
To further examine the changes of the severity of traumatic symptoms, paired sample t test was conducted.
However, this result may be due to the limited sample size and the limited number of traumatic events investigated.
In addition, the ratio of male/female in our normal random sample was comparable with the group of traumatic hand injuries.
This may partially explain why the overall prevalence of traumatic events was lower (36.3%) in our sample than in US community samples (36.7-92.2%).
Our study should be replicated with a larger sample size and with children exposed to various types of traumatic events.
