Fear of childbirth, mental health, and medication use during pregnancy
Abstract
The aim of this work was to study the associations between medication use, fear of childbirth, and maternal mental health. Pregnant women (n = 1,984) were recruited through routine antenatal care at a Norwegian hospital from November 2008 through April 2010. Data were collected by three self-completed questionnaires at pregnancy week 17 and 32 and at 8 weeks postpartum. Fear of childbirth was measured by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ). Symptoms of anxiety were measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-25) and symptoms of depression by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). In total, 57.7 % of the women used medications during pregnancy. Analgesics were used by 55.8 % of the women and psychotropic medications by 1.8 %. In all, 7.8 % of the women reported fear of childbirth (W-DEQ >85), the prevalence of anxiety (SCL >18) was 11.8 % and the prevalence of depression (EPDS >13) was 8.1 %. Fear of childbirth was significantly associated with use of psychotropic drugs (OR 3.63; 95 % CI 1.39-9.43) but not with the use of analgesics or medications in general. The presence of symptoms of anxiety or depression increased the magnitude of this association. Fear of childbirth is associated with an increased use of psychotropic medication. This finding could not only be explained by an overlap between fear of childbirth and impaired mental health.
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Women with fear of childbirth receive significantly more psychotropic medication.
“Research also suggests that women with FOC receive significantly more psychotropic medication (Nordeng et al., Citation2012)”
From The feasibility and acceptability of a single-session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention to support women self-reporting fear of childbirth in a first pregnancy. (2023) · cites this paper as Nordeng et al., 2012
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- Authors
- Nordeng, H., Hansen, C., Garthus-Niegel, S., & Eberhard-Gran, M.
- Affiliations
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Nordeng, Hedvig
- ORCID
- Nordeng, Hedvig
- Venue
- Archives of Women's Mental Health
- Published
- 2012-04-18
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 203-209
- ISSN
- 1434-1816 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-1102
- OpenAlex
- W2051035394
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 4.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Archives of Women s Mental Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Norges Forskningsråd
- Akershus Universitetssykehus
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Pregnancy and Medication Impact
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions
- Keywords
- fear of childbirth, maternal mental health, drug use in pregnancy, psychotropic drugs, analgesics, anxiety, postpartum depression, Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire, prenatal care
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Depression, Fear, Female, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Mental Health, Mothers, Norway, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications, Pregnancy Outcome, Psychotropic Drugs, Surveys and Questionnaires, Retrospective Studies, Parturition, Young Adult
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