Tokophobia

Tokophobia is a significant fear of childbirth and is classified as a type of specific phobia. It is one of the recognized reasons some pregnant women request an elective caesarean section rather than attempt vaginal delivery. Contributing factors commonly cited include fear of pain during labor, fear of death for the mother or the child, fear of unexpected medical complications, fear of injury during delivery, associated sexual anxieties, and a lack of confidence in one's own ability to give birth successfully. Treatment generally proceeds through counselling and psychological support rather than medication. Writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2000, researchers described tokophobia as a psychological disorder that had received comparatively little clinical attention up to that point and that could easily be overlooked by maternity care providers focused primarily on the physical aspects of pregnancy.