‘Who’s afraid of the big bad Birth’: Childbirth trauma, fear and tokophobia

Abstract

Women today have made many choices before even meeting with a midwife in their early pregnancy. When a midwife makes that contact it may already be evident that she is worried and certainly anxious about the changes that are happening to her body. How do these women approach pregnancy? What do they say? What kind of things are they worried about? What is it that midwives and doctors can be alerted to which may show that woman is vulnerable to stressful situations that may cause her more anxiety? The services that are currently being developed in response to these women will be discussed together with an overview of how women respond. What is this and how is it recognised and managed. This chapter uses the experiences of two consultant midwives who have developed care pathways to identify, support and treat such women. Both are based in the UK, one in London and the other in Birmingham serving a wide range of childbearing women.