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Tokophobia: An unreasoning dread of childbirth: A series of 26 cases
Abstract
Background: Some women dread and avoid childbirth despite desperately wanting a baby. This is called tokophobia. Aims: To classify tokophobia for the first time in the medical literature. Method: Twenty-six women noted to have an unreasoning dread of childbirth were interviewed by the same psychiatrist, who was not the treating doctor. A qualitative analysis of these psychiatric interviews was performed. Results: Phobic avoidance of pregnancy may date from adolescence (primary tokophobia), be secondary to atraumatic delivery (secondary tokophobia) or be a symptom of prenatal depression (tokophobia as a symptom of depression). Pregnant women with tokophobia who were refused their choice of delivery method suffered higher rates of psychological morbidity than those who achieved their desired delivery method. Conclusions: Tokophobia is a specific and harrowing condition that needs acknowledging. Close liaison between the obstetrician and the psychiatrist in order to assess the balance between surgical and psychiatric morbidity is imperative with tokophobia.
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“As a result of birth trauma, some women develop a severe a fear of childbirth [39,40].”
From The birth trauma earthquake: A qualitative investigation of first-time mothers who perceived their birth as traumatic (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
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- 1992, The Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
- 10.3109/00016349709024365 · DOI
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- Marce, 1858, Traite de la Folie des Fernmes Enceintes, des Nouvelles Accouchees et des Nourrices
- 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1990.tb01358.x · DOI
- Ekblad, 1961, The prognosis after sterilization on social–psychiatric grounds. A follow-up study on 225 women, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 37, 9
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Worldwide prevalence of tocophobia in pregnant women: systematic review and meta‐analysis
O'Connell, M. A., Leahy‐Warren, P., Khashan, A. S., Kenny, L. C., & O'Neill, S. M. (2017) · Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/aogs.13138 · Cited by 360
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Molgora, S., Fenaroli, V., Prino, L. E., Rollè, L., Sechi, C., Trovato, A., Vismara, L., Volpi, B., Brustia, P., Lucarelli, L., et al. (2018) · Women and Birth · doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2017.06.022 · Cited by 122
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SAISTO, T., TOIVANEN, R., SALMELA‐ARO, K., & HALMESMÄKI, E. (2006) · Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica · doi:10.1080/00016340600756920 · Cited by 131
Metadata
- Authors
- Hofberg, K., & Brockington, I.
- Venue
- British Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2000-01
- Volume
- 176
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 83-85
- ISSN
- 0007-1250
- 1472-1465
- Cited by
- 238
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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- Hofberg, K., & Brockington, I. (2000). Tokophobia: An unreasoning dread of childbirth: A series of 26 cases. British Journal of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.176.1.83
