About The Questionnaire

The City Birth Trauma Scale was developed by Susan Ayers and colleagues at City, University of London. It was published in 2018 and is the first scale specifically designed to assess traumatic birth and PTSD according to the diagnostic criteria outlined in DSM-5. Since then, versions for birth partners/fathers and maternity staff have been developed and validated, and a short version to use for screening was published in 2025.

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The original scale has 29 questions which assess traumatic birth using DSM-5 stressor criterion A, symptoms of PTSD, and whether a person meets diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Symptoms measured by the scale are: re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, hyperarousal symptoms, and negative cognitions and mood. The scale includes 2 questions on dissociation to assess the subtype of PTSD with dissociation, as well as 1 question on differential diagnosis (e.g. due to medication or illness). The short screening version has 5 questions only.

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Psychometric studies suggest the scale has robust psychometric properties and good internal consistency across different translations. The scale has been translated into over 30 languages. It is available open access under a creative commons licence and can be downloaded from this website.