Pregnancy phobia

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Classification according to ICD-10
F40.2 Specific (isolated) phobias
ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019)

The tokophobia or Tokophobie ( Greek. Phobos "fear" toko "Pregnancy") is a specific anxiety disorder and refers to the pathological fear of pregnancy or childbirth .

Tokophobia was first examined by Kristina Hofberg in a study in Great Britain in 2000 . It found that 13% of non-pregnant women said they were avoiding or postponing a pregnancy because of fear. Women with toophobia would often use particularly thorough contraception, allow themselves to be sterilized more often, and urge their partners to be sterilized more often . It also happens that fear leads to an abortion . The study also concludes that 7% of all caesarean sections are performed simply because of fear of childbirth.

A distinction is made between primary (lifelong) and secondary (after a traumatic experience) toophobia. In the primary phobia, the fear of pain during childbirth only plays a superficial role. Rather, the fears of the people concerned are directed towards supposedly incompetent doctors or midwives or towards the fear of giving birth to a disabled child. There is also a fear of generally not being able to cope with the demands of a mother. In the secondary, a birth that had already taken place was usually experienced as traumatic. Postpartum mood crises can occur as a result of childbirth and encourage toophobia. The birth of a dead child or the diagnosis of a severe malformation can be a particular trigger. But forceps deliveries and unplanned caesarean sections, as well as partnership conflicts, increase the risk.

The fear of childbirth is often passed on from mothers to daughters. So over generations there is a kind of “psychological inheritance”. This is even more pronounced when there was also a negative attitude towards sexuality in the family. Sexual abuse plays a causal role in around 12% of women affected .

Tokophobia can be treated with psychotherapy .

literature

  • K. Hofberg, IF Brockington: Tokophobia: an unreasoning dread of childbirth. A series of 26 cases. In: British Journal Psychiatry. (2000), pp. 83-85.
  • A. Kersting: Birth as a psychological trauma Recognizing women at particular risk at an early stage. In: NeuroTransmitter magazine. Special issue No. 2 (2003), p. 16 ff.
  • K. Hofberg, MR Ward: Fear of pregnancy and childbirth. In: Postgraduate Medical Journal. (2003), pp. 505-510.
  • C. Klier: Mother Happiness and Sorrow: Diagnosis and Therapy of Postpartum Depression. Facultas Verlag, Vienna 2001, p. 11.