ĭuring the last few decades there has been a growing research interest in women’s fear of childbirth. Fear of childbirth has consequences for women’s relationships with their baby, partner and family, and often leads to requests for caesarean section (CS) by women striving for control in an exposed situation. Despite the fact that maternity care in high income countries is safe, fear of childbirth is a common problem affecting women’s health and wellbeing before and during pregnancy, as well as after childbirth. Women’s expectations and experiences of pregnancy and birth are both positive and negative in nature, involving feelings of joy and faith but also worries, anxiety and fears. Childbirth is an experience with many dimensions, multifaceted and unique for each woman, still strongly influenced by her social context. Moreover, validation of a clinical tool that is more focussed on FOC alone, and easier than the longer W-DEQ, for women to fill in and clinicians to administer, is required.īeing pregnant and giving birth are described as a transition phase, or an existential threshold that childbearing women have to cross. Future studies on FOC should use the W-DEQ tool with a cut-off point of ≥85, or a more thoroughly tested version of the FOBS scale, or a three-point scale measurement of FOC using a single question as ‘Are you afraid about the birth?’ In this way, valid comparisons in research can be made. Reasons why FOC might differ are unknown, and further research is necessary. Rates of severe FOC, measured in the same way, varied in different countries. Country rates (as measured by seven studies using W-DEQ with ≥85 cut-off point) varied from 6.3 to 14.8%, a significant difference (chi-square = 104.44, d.f. = 6, p < 0.0001). Different 3-, 4-, and 5/6 point scales and visual analogue scales were also used. The most frequently-used scale was the W-DEQ with various cut-off points describing moderate, severe/intense and extreme/phobic fear. Various definitions and measurements of FOC were used. Of these, 466 were excluded leaving 24 papers included in the review, presenting prevalence of FOC from nine countries in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States. In total, 12,188 citations were identified and screened by title and abstract 11,698 were excluded and full-text of 490 assessed for analysis. Finally, some of the country rates were combined and compared. Prevalence data, definitions and methods of measurement were extracted independently from each included study by pairs of authors. The quality of selected studies was assessed independently by pairs of authors. Methodsįive bibliographic databases in March 2015 were searched for published research on FOC, using a protocol agreed a priori. The aims of this review were to summarise published research on prevalence of FOC in childbearing women and how it is defined and measured during pregnancy and postpartum, and to search for useful measures of FOC, for research as well as for clinical settings. Fear of Childbirth (FOC) is a common problem affecting women’s health and wellbeing, and a common reason for requesting caesarean section.
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