Fear of pregnancy: There are more women suffering from this phobia than you think

"Children are the true meaning of life!" ? "Only now do I feel completely!" "It is a true wish child."

We hear a lot about the happiness of being pregnant and having children. From girlfriends, family, bloggers. Meanwhile, we also know how much women suffer from their unfulfilled desire to have children. And that some women prefer to remain childless - or even regret their children, is no longer a big taboo.

"The feeling that an alien would grow in me"

On the midwife blog of the Berlin midwife and blogger Jana Friedrich describes a woman who suffers from pregnancy phobia, what is going on in her and why she finds the idea of being pregnant "frightening".

"I do not want my body to change that way, I just can not imagine enjoying those changes, being proud, excited and pleased, that suddenly something alive is moving in me, how could I be happy about that, without Of course, it would be easy to rely on the hormones and your own body, but what if the alien feeling remains? What if being pregnant really is so 'strange' and feels frightening as I imagine? "

At the same time, the person in question wishes they would finally feel the desire to have children that so many women have.

In addition, she senses that her phobia is hardly acknowledged socially. The norm is the idea of the female body as a miracle and life giver. That someone feels this task as scary, rarely meets understanding. The result is that women do not talk about their fear - and so often can not overcome it.

Tokophobia: horror conception of birth

Fear of physical changes, comes in many women with tophatia Fear of birth and painthat you are exposed to. Do women become pregnant with this anxiety disorder? A study from Engalnd and Wales estimates that up to 7 percent of all caesarean sections are due to a tophobia. However, the idea of being "slashed on the stomach" can once again cause anxiety. In the worst case, affected women even let the child abort.

Every sixth woman affected

The first large pregnancy phobia study was conducted by Kristina Hofberg in 2000. She found out that every sixth woman in the UK is affected by a tophophobia? much more than she expected.

Opposite the Guardian she said about the fears of women:

"It is a morbid terror that in its most extreme form can cause women to risk a miscarriage through their behavior, such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs or even punching themselves in the stomach."

Even if they gave birth to the child in a healthy state, those affected could be persecuted for years by the bad guys in their heads.

How is the fear triggered?

Various factors can trigger a tophophobia. Often a traumatic experience precedes: some women were traumatized in early childhood by pictures of a birth, others have experienced a traumatizing birth and have thereby developed the anxiety disorder. According to researcher Hofberg also women who were sexually abused as a child, are affected more often than average. For some women, fear of failure also plays a role.
Fear can also be "inherited": women whose mothers are suffering from a pregnancy phobia have a higher risk of even developing this fear.

What helps with a tophobia?

Women who are extremely afraid of pregnancy and childbirth and suffer from it should definitely seek professional advice. By a psychotherapy Possible causes can be identified and ways can be found, how the fear can be overcome.

And that it is, shows a comment of a reader under the post on the midwife blog:

"I remember how, during the first few weeks, I was in a tense condition and I was sure that I would not be able to endure the pregnancy and even let me have the option to end it." It all went well when I was my baby then tenderly felt in the stomach, I found it beautiful. "