Tokophobia: Doctor Explains How You Can Deal With Your Fear of Pregnancy

Giving birth to a child is considered a deeply ingrained and fundamental part of a woman’s life. However, there is a significant group of women who feel fear and anxiety with just the thought of childbirth, and this fear is known as Tokophobia. Clearly, being a scary thought, especially when giving birth is one of the most intense pains one can experience, pregnancy phobia can leave several women in fear, causing them to avoid pregnancy altogether.

The fear of pregnancy can be due to many physical or mental reasons, including a previous experience of a painful medical procedure or watching disturbing scenes of labour online. For a better understanding of tokophobia, the editorial team of Onlymyhealth reached out to Dr Deepthi Ashwin, Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Mr S Giriprasad, Psychologist, Aster Whitefield Hospital, Bengaluru.

What is Tokophobia?

Tokophobia is an extreme fear of childbirth, which causes women to take excessive measures to avoid getting pregnant. Alternatively, those who do get pregnant may dread each week of pregnancy instead of enjoying the feeling, as reported by the Cleveland Clinic.

According to Gynaecologist Dr Deepti Ashwin, this fear is very far from the development of mere nerves, "it is a real fear that can cause a woman to even avoid thinking about getting pregnant." It is estimated that almost 1 in 10 women suffer from this fear, although it is rarely addressed by the women themselves. "This is mainly because those who have it feel embarrassed and perceive their fear as being different, their own, whilst in fact, it is very common,” Dr Ashwin stated.

Sharing its psychological side, Mr Giriprasad explained, “Tokophobia is a mind-related disorder where the mind misinterprets and stores fear. Some people are more prone to anxiety and may be more affected by painful thoughts, loss of control, or major life changes than others.”

Women may develop a fear of childbirth after hearing many frightful birth stories or getting scared by such content. "For a lot of women, the fear is tied to the emotional side of feeling unready for motherhood, being worried that their body will change, or fearing having such a big responsibility," the psychologist shared.

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What Causes the Fear Of Pregnancy?

Several causes may lead one to develop this fear of pregnancy. Dr Ashwin explained that Tokophobia may cause a woman to have difficulties in conceiving, not due to her body but because her mind keeps sending the signal of danger. Here are a few contributing factors of tokophobia suggested by the gynaecologist and psychologist:

• The fear may be associated with previous painful medical experiences, such as difficult childbirth, infertility treatments, miscarriage, or chronic pelvic pain.
• Even hearing negative stories from others may cause fear of childbirth, as the mind will connect this with danger.
• Hospitals, needles, or medical procedures may also result in increased anxiety and fear.
• Sexual abuse can also have a profound effect on how a woman looks at pregnancy and childbirth, leading to accumulated fear in mind and body.
• Seeing someone going through a traumatic delivery can make an individual a victim of tokophobia.

As to the development of the fear, some women slowly accumulate it while others are shocked by the fear when the topic is brought up. With trauma, the brain links birth with danger even if the rational mind knows that no complications are expected.

Symptoms Of Tokophobia

Early signs of this problem are often very subtle. Dr Ashwin shared that some women often say that they ‘never want kids’; however, deep down inside, they do not really know what they think. This is one of the first emotional signals of tokophobia, which should be handled with sensitivity and respect. Here are a few major symptoms one can experience with tokophobia:

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• The terror may result in irregular sleep patterns, high stress hormones, and even being reluctant to go for gynaecological check-ups.
• If a woman manages to conceive, her anxiety can be with her throughout her pregnancy, causing her to lose her appetite for the usual meals, sleep poorly, and, in general, be unwell.
• The majority of women with tokophobia would extremely like to have a Caesarean section because to them, labour sounds too dreadful.
• Emotionally, women having tokophobia mostly feel extreme terror, panic, agitation, and intrusive thoughts every time the topic of pregnancy is mentioned.
• Nightmares and a feeling of losing control are quite often in women with tokophobia.
• Some women may abstain from intimacy and conjugal acts as they fear that it may lead to conception.

Experts further emphasised that these reactions should not be considered a weakness because they are an indication that the mind is trying to protect itself from something that it sees as a threat.

How To Overcome the Fear Of Pregnancy?

A good number of women feel relief from their fear when they are understood and acknowledged. “At times, early counselling is advised so that it runs alongside emotional support and medical care. Creating a personal pregnancy or birth plan can not only make a woman feel more in control but also help reduce her anxiety level,” Dr Ashwin explained.

Psychologist Giriprasad underlined, “It's diagnosis goes beyond lab results and physical examinations as it is about understanding the story behind the fear. With the right approach and compassion, one can successfully bring the patient out of the fear.” He also stated that the treatment for tokophobia is not only based on the doctor or medical procedures.

The major change comes from how people in the patient’s life treat her phobia and help her overcome it. Here are a few methods one can look forward to if going through tokophobia:

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• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) enable women to distract and change their catastrophic thoughts to milder ones.
• Trauma recovery therapies like EMDR may be very helpful to those whose anxiety is caused by previously traumatic incidents.
• Mindfulness, breathing exercises, and grounding techniques make the person more relaxed in response to the fear.
• Above all which the most important this is to mute the sources providing misinformation or their own imagination.

Bottomline

While the fear of pregnancy is real and can be extreme, the right emotional and medical support can help manage it very well. However, it is important to understand if the denial of pregnancy is tokophobia or the woman’s personal choice. An individual may take therapy to understand her fear, as ignoring it for a long time may impact her daily life, her relationships, or her ability to attend routine check-ups.