There’s a growing divide between what patients really need during childbirth and what many clinical systems actually deliver still. There’s an approach that is steadily narrowing the gap, and it’s trauma-informed care. It’s not a facade, nor is it a trend and neither can it be classified as soft science. It’s in fact, a structured and evidence-supported model that has measurable outcomes.
Dyanne Tappin, MD of Connecticut, a practicing Ob/Gyn hospitalist and advocate for trauma-informed protocols, sees this shift as long overdue. She says that the reality is that one cannot separate emotional safety from clinical safety, as it’s all interlinked. She strongly stands by the fact that trauma histories cannot be ignored, as if done so, the clear picture of what goes through will never come up.
The model doesn’t require resetting the entire default operational bit, but it requires recalibrating how care is delivered in the first place, and it starts from awareness and continues to go on till protocol.
In a trauma-informed maternity unit:
Dyanne Tappin, MD of Connecticut, explained that it’s practical and structural and most importantly, it works.
When implemented effectively, trauma-informed care reduces re-traumatization, improves patient communication, and contributes to lower intervention rates. At institutions where Dyanne Tappin has consulted or taught, several key improvements have been documented:
According to Dyanne Tappin, these are outcomes that matter a lot, as they’re clinical, trackable, and also aligned with everything that we claim to value.
One of the other reasons why trauma-informed care stalls in many hospitals is because the leadership treats it like a philosophical layer instead of an operational one, something that’s in the mind more than it is clinical. Dyanne Tappin MD of Connecticut pushes for integration at the protocol level, not just through webinars or awareness posters, but through charting systems, nursing documentation, and procedural checklists.
When implemented institution-wide, this care model creates consistency across shifts, not just with individual providers. Syanne Tappin argues that one cannot rely on sheer good intentions, as it needs support and assistance.
There are a lot of disparities in maternal health, and they’re also well documented. Surely, a trauma-informed framework doesn’t solve it completely, but it still creates some accountability, which is important in some way. It requires clinicians to pause, ask, and document.
For Dyanne Tappin, this isn’t optional. She states that the stakes are too high, so if one doesn’t embed these safeguards, then the outcomes remain negligible or uneven.
A frequent misstep is treating trauma-informed care as a one-and-done training. In practice, it requires routine reinforcement through drills, case reviews, and peer feedback.
Hospitals that integrate the model successfully often create:
Dyanne Tappin, MD of Connecticut, has been a thorough support system for these hospitals as they piloted these measures, improved patient satisfaction and also gave more clarity to staff - especially new residents and rotating team members.
It’s easy to dismiss trauma-informed care as secondary to high-stakes obstetrics. But the data continues to point elsewhere.
As Dyanne Tappin rightly suggests, it is not about adding emotional labor but about tightening operational gaps that affect everything else.
As more institutions explore new care models, the challenge is awareness and then final execution. For Dyanne Tappin, MD of Connecticut, the next step is standardization.
According to her, the more hospitals embed trauma-informed care into clinical pathways, the more consistent the outcomes become, as you don’t ever need a new ideology in this case, but you need better alignment.
Surely, trauma-informed care isn’t revolutionary. It’s responsible. And it’s a lens that, when applied properly, sharpens the entire field of maternal health, not softens it.
Dyanne Tappin, MD of Connecticut, isn’t calling for radical reinvention. She’s asking healthcare institutions to match their clinical precision with operational empathy. Because when those two align, maternal care doesn’t just improve- it stabilizes.
