Red Light Therapy and Postpartum PTSD
What Firefighters and New Moms Have in Common (And Why Red Light Therapy Might Be the Missing Piece for Postpartum PTSD)
If you’re a doula, midwife, therapist, or lactation consultant, you’ve probably heard the stories.
The emergency cesarean that left a mom too terrified to try for another baby.
The NICU separation that turned every beep of a monitor into a panic trigger.
The “healthy baby, healthy mom” birth that didn’t feel so healthy at all.
Birth trauma is real - and for too many women, it lingers long after the six-week checkup.
We see the symptoms: poor sleep, flashbacks, hypervigilance, anxiety, difficulty bonding, and shame that makes them feel “crazy” for not being over it.
Often, they’re told to “talk it out” or try medication. Sometimes that helps. But many women are looking for something more, especially when those tools don’t fully bring relief.
What if the solution could come from an unexpected place?
Like… firefighter research.
Photobiomodulation for the brain.
Firefighters, Red Light Therapy, and the Brain
A new pilot study from the University of Utah caught my attention for all the right reasons. Researchers looked at a group of active-duty male firefighters. These men are regularly exposed to life-or-death situations and the kind of stress most of us can’t imagine.
The study used a type of red light therapy called transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM), targeting key areas of the brain with near-infrared light (810 nm wavelength). The firefighters did 20-minute sessions, 3 - 4 times a week, for 8 weeks. That’s it. They used the Vielight device.
The results? Impressive
✅ Depression symptoms dropped dramatically
✅ PTSD scores improved significantly
✅ Cognitive function (like memory and focus) soared
✅ Pain and social withdrawal improved too
No side effects. No downtime. Just high compliance and real-life results - while still on the job.
What This Means for Birth Professionals
You might be wondering… What does this have to do with postpartum moms?
Well, everything.
Because we’re finally starting to recognize what many of us in birth work have known for years: some women have birth experiences that leave them traumatised. Whether from emergency interventions, feeling unheard, fear for their baby's life, or loss of control, these experiences can lead to PTSD, affecting up to 1 in 20 women, with even higher rates after NICU stays or cesareans.
And here’s where it gets tricky.
Standard treatments include:
Talk therapy (like EMDR or CBT)
Medication (SSRIs usually)
Mindfulness-based approaches
These are valuable tools, but they take time, access, and often come with side effects or stigma. They don’t always address the brain-based, physiological roots of trauma.
And that's where tPBM stands out.
This isn’t just about feeling better, it’s about supporting the actual biology of healing: reducing inflammation, improving sleep quality, and regulating the brain regions involved in fear and memory.
If it worked for firefighters in an active-duty setting… imagine what it could do for a sleep-deprived new mom quietly reliving her birth trauma every night. Hopefully one day we can have insurance cover the cost of these devices as the research continues to grow.
A New Frontier in Postpartum Care
I believe this research opens the door to an exciting, compassionate, and non-invasive addition to postpartum recovery protocols.
Imagine:
✨ Red light sessions during postpartum visits for pain, blocked ducts, cesarean recovery.
✨ Home-use devices for clients experiencing trauma symptoms.
✨ Integrative care plans that pair tPBM with mental health support.
✨ Faster, safer pathways to healing for the moms we serve.
As birth professionals, we’re on the front lines with these families. And we have an opportunity to bring science-backed innovation into the sacred postpartum space, while honoring the emotional experience that so often goes unspoken.
Because birth is just the beginning. Healing should be too.
Resources:
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15578550251362096
