A Multicentric Study on Fear of Childbirth in Pregnant Women at Term

Abstract

An unselected consecutive series of 810 Italian pregnant women at term was investigated by means of a modified version of a questionnaire concerning fear of childbirth (validated by Areskog et al. [3] in a Swedish pregnant population). More than one-third of the women expressed fear concerning the condition and well-being of the newborn child, fear of physical damage to the woman herself, fear of not being able to control herself during delivery and fear of loosing her identity. Significant differences were found between women interviewed in Northern and Southern Italy. The mean percentage of affirmative answers was generally higher in Southern Italy. No significant differences were detected between women attending or not attending psychoprophylactic preparation courses concerning childbirth and between nulliparous or parous women; neither age, nor educational level seemed to be related to ‘fear of childbirth.’ In this study the differences between Northern and Southern Italy's pregnant population on fear of childbirth seem to be related to cultural background and/or socio-economic status.