Fear of childbirth in primiparous women: what relation with psychological dimensions?

Fear of Childbirth (FOC) represents an important women’s health issue: approximately 20% of all pregnant women report this emotion, even if its severity can be very different, ranging from mild worry to extreme-clinical fear (tokophobia). Scientific literature has analyzed FOC focusing both on the antecedents and the consequences as well as on the variables connected to fear. In particular, several studies have found that FOC is associated with medical variables during pregnancy (such as the medication use) and delivery (such as the type of delivery, the request for pain relief during labour, the labour duration). At the same time, FOC is associated with some psychological variables, intrapsychic (such as anxiety and depression) and interpersonal (such as the quality of couple relationship, the presence of support networks). The present study aims to analyze the connection between FOC and different variables - intrapsychic, relational e social - during pregnancy. This research is supported by grants from PRIN 2013/2016 - 20107JZAF4, Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR). 150 primiparous women at 7th-8th month of pregnancy, recruited in Cagliari, Milan, Rome and Turin during the participation to courses that accompany the woman in delivery, completed some self-report scales (Wijma Delivery Experience Questionnaire, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support) and a psychosocial risk questionnaire created ad hoc. Preliminary results show that FOC is associated with different variables, meaning that it is a complex construct that needs further investigation in order to better understand its characteristics and proprieties. Future research would be addressed to identify different clusters of women, starting from the connection between FOC and the other variables investigated.