A powerful new photo series is celebrating women’s strength by sharing their negative birth experiences.

The “ Exposing The Silence Project ” is the brainchild of women’s childbirth advocate Cristen Pascucci and doula and photographer Lindsay Askins. The pair created the series to document birth trauma and honour the strength of American women, which came about through Cristen’s work at Birth Monopoly, a community she founded.

Cristen is also the vice-president of a national maternal advocacy organisation called Improving Birth, where Lindsay had been volunteering and the pace where the pair initially met. The project has been supported by both organisations and is largely how they gained the knowledge and motivation to see it through to completion.

Their journey initially began in May when Cristen and Lindsay drove from San Francisco to New York, photographing women and recording their birth trauma along the way. They asked the women they met three simple questions: What was traumatic about your baby’s birth, what happened if you tried to tell people about it, and how are you taking your power back?

Brittany, from Wheeling, was one of the women photographed and interviewed. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins/www.spotofserendipity.com.

The mothers spoke about unnecessary medical intervention, humiliation and disrespect at the hands of hospital staff.

A woman named Brittany, from West Virginia's Wheeling, said, "Being a nurse myself, I trusted the doctor and her opinions on what needed done. Within an hour of my arrival at the hospital, she turned my calm and beautiful labour into a chaotic disaster because of her unnecessary interventions. She later boasted that she ruined my birth but at least my incision was pretty."

But while the answers are definitely confronting, they also help to raise awareness of a difficult topic that’s often ignored. In fact, research shows that one third of American women would describe their births as “traumatic”.

Lindsay told The Huffington Post,  “Most women are very hesitant to speak about what they've been through because it is met with dismissive comments or invalidation…'At least you have a healthy baby' or 'stop complaining' is often the common response, and the result is these mothers second-guess what they are truly feeling and fall into a place of isolation and depression.”

Leslie from Los Angeles also shared her story. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins/www.spotofserendipity.com.

Speaking to The Motherish, Cristen said, "This project is more important now than ever in the context of a maternity care system that is dysfunctional on so many levels--it's been called a 'crisis' by Amnesty International, and numerous health, advocacy, and government organisations have called for big changes in U.S. maternity care."

"So, it's important to understand that big picture when you're reading these women's stories--these are the kinds of experiences women are having in the only developed country with a rising maternal mortality rate, where 1 in 3 births is by surgery, and women are reporting (and research is just beginning to emerge) that coercion and disrespect and abuse are common," she continued.

Cristen added, "I know that our system is mirrored in Australia, and that makes me feel sorry for Australian women--who I also talk to regularly--who are experiencing much of the same."

Bravo - because the more women speak out about this painful issue, the better. For all of us.

Did you experience a traumatic birth?

TAP on the image below and scroll through the gallery to see more photos from the Exposing The Silence series…

Exposing The Silence.

Timoria, New Jersey. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

A year after my postpartum hemorrhage, I had a miscarriage in public at a frozen yogurt shop. The humiliation didn't end there. At the ER, while waiting for my regular doctor to arrive, the attending ER physician walks in. Im covered in blood from my waist to my feet. He grabs a stick and says to me, Spread your legs. The look of disgust on his face...I dont think Ive ever seen a look like that on a human being's face... like I was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen in his life and he didn't want to touch me. It was so degrading."

Staci, San Diego. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"My birth experience could have been far less traumatic if the hospital staff would have listened to me and trusted that I know when something is not right with my body. I told the nurse repeatedly in the hours after my son was born that something was not right. The nurse dismissively said, "oh, it's just the Pitocin", shrugging my concern off as if I was just an oversensitive patient. At the very least they could have provided me with after care with actual care about what happened to me. I honestly dont think the nurses in the recovery room knew the experience I had been through. Once I was in recovery, I felt like a piece of meat on a conveyor belt shuffled from one room to another until I was out of the door and out of their hair."

Samantha, New Jersey. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"He actively pushed my leg to the side and stuck the thing in me. That was the most traumatising thing - I had just said 'no' and he did it anyway. He said, 'just stay still! I was crying and I really didnt want it. I was about to change my mind and she pushed me down. I just cried into the pillow. I felt so defeated and I felt like I knew what was coming and I had no control over something that was supposed to be all about me. And Its almost like were not allowed to talk about it. Because you didnt die and your baby didnt die, you should just be happy. As if I should think, 'thank goodness for that doctor who was able to perform the [unnecessary] C section.' That's like if someone pushes you down the stairs and then catches you....are you still happy they caught you?"

Renee, New York. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"Had I known while pregnant with my own children the realities versus myths about the life changing journey that not only I was walking, but one my husband and my son were also walking -- and had Dr. Tatiana Andrews valued me as a woman, capable and willing in making healthy choices for myself and my child, versus scaring me and forcing me down a path my body and baby were not ready for-- my family would have had a different introduction to the world! That was taken from me and it didn't have to be! It is vital that all women hear AND believe, with every fibre of their being, that they are beautifully designed to bring their child into the world safely, with complete strength and power that they already posses."

Meredith, Harrisburg. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"I was, like, the eighth person to hold my baby. That was the most traumatic part for me. What the heck just happened and why did everyone else get to hold her before me? I had to watch this young nurse washing her with my husband... I was just lying there. Watching."

Elizabeth, Richmond. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"The attitude of the doctor that fixed me up was that of a judge giving me my life sentence as I woke up from anesthesia. This was followed by days of being treated like a child, a specimen, and finding that my no didn't mean a thing in the hospital, and that my needs were an inconvenience. In one of two traumatic postpartum ER visits, I was even mocked after waking up from anesthesia. I didn't understand what had happened to me for four weeks, until a specialist I was seeing for my healing described things in detail. I felt a strange comfort in finally understanding the mash-up of poorly stitched flesh that was my womanhood, as well as horror in the same breath at hearing the words You almost died... I'm still getting over it.

Erika, New York. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"'Do you understand you are doing this without my consent?' As they are putting needles into my arm, I'm telling them 'You are doing this against my will.' Their response, even as my strong contractions grew faster and I was in active labour was, 'I can't wait all night and we are doing this now.' Less than an hour later, he was born, taken from me before I could hold him longer than a minute or two and not returned until almost three hours later even though he had no complications. I cried every minute and couldn't stop thinking 'this isn't supposed to be like this.'"

Jami, Wheeling. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

The system needs to change... after that experience my entire doula path changed. My entire life changed. I can no longer stand by and watch women be humiliated, disrespected, and violated."

Kim, Riverside. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"The one emotion that was consistent during my daughter's birth, almost 13 years ago, was shame - shame for not birthing her vaginally, shame for not being able to breastfeed her, shame for not feeling a connection to her right away. The nursing staff in particular reaffirmed this emotion over and over again, one nurse even saying to me as she wheeled me to my recovery room after my Cesarean, 'you know youre too young to have a baby...' And I believed them."

Leslie, Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Lindsay Askins.

"I begged the nurse for help, letting her know that my body was pushing and I couldnt stop it. I was twenty-eight hours into labour and unmedicated. She told me I couldnt possibly be ready [to push] because I was a first time mum. I repeatedly asked her to check me or get the midwife. Instead, she paced around my bed insisting I wasnt ready and refused to check me or get help. When my mum tried to check me, the nurse physically closed my legs and said she not ready. I been nurse longer than she been alive, I know when they ready. She not ready. I fought my bodys urge to deliver my child for a solid 50 minutes. I was later diagnosed with postpartum PTSD and endured a painful, 11 month physical recovery because of the choices made by my abusive and dismissive nurse."

You can read more from Cristen and Lindsay on their website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.