A 19-year-old woman's fears about her pregnancy were dismissed with comments from midwives such as "they just keep getting younger" in the weeks before she gave birth to a stillborn daughter.
Larissa Palamara told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma she was so ill in the final weeks of her pregnancy in 1997 she did not have the energy to stand in the shower.
"I was consistently losing weight at every check-up," Ms Palamara told the committee on Monday.
"Instead of being offered testing or having my concerns validated, I was told it was because I was a teenager who was trying to protect my bikini body."
Ms Palamara gave birth to her stillborn daughter weeks after repeatedly telling a midwife about her declining health and reduced foetal movements.
"The midwife ... made it very clear to me from the first meeting that her own children were older than me," she said.
"'They just keep getting younger' was her claim ... that became a constant theme of any question I asked or concern I raised."
Almost three decades later, Ms Palamara shared her lingering torment over being sedated when she asked about her baby after waking from an emergency caesarean section.
"I was the only person in the room that didn't know she was already gone," she said.
"That was taken from me."
The inquiry, which has received submissions from 4000 people including patients, doctors, midwives and experts around Australia, has been examining the prevalence and effects of birth trauma.
Witnesses have told of life-threatening experiences, birth injuries, non-consensual procedures and insensitive treatment by staff.
Cassidi-Rae Amosa recalled a doctor roughly removing fragments of placenta without warning after she gave birth in 2019.
She urged health care professionals to actively seek consent.
"No nurse or midwife or doctor can tell me (about) my body," Ms Amosa said.
She was discharged from hospital with high blood pressure and suffered several strokes about a week later.
Her risk was overlooked before and during the strokes because she was 21.
"The paramedics pretty much stated that I was so young, there's no chance of me having a stroke," she said.
"(They said) 'she must be overdosing'."
The committee heard of research that found women who suffered pelvic organ prolapse after vaginal birth could experience post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms usually seen in war veterans.
"They were re-experiencing it constantly, they were having nightmares, there was avoidance and numbness," research author Dr Elizabeth Skinner said.
Several psychologists urged the committee to recommend increasing the number of subsidised appointments available under a Medicare mental health treatment plan.
The hearing was the last in the year-long inquiry before it is due to report to parliament in June.
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