Tokophobia in women — how to overcome fear of childbirth?
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Processes such as pregnancy and childbirth are very complex and alarming, and many representatives of the fair sex plan their appearance in the baby”s home long before it is due to be born. However, not everyone knows that such a category of women exists. It goes without saying that categories of women do not allow their representatives and ideas to get us pregnant, let alone bring our children into the world. This phenomenon, known medically as “tokophobia,” leads to uncontrollable panic attacks, the emergence of all kinds of fears and grounds for frightening obsessive thoughts.
Contents of the article:
Where did the pathological fear of childbirth come from? Is this normal and is there a solution to the problem?
One of the isolated phobias
Tokophobia is one of the forms of the so-called isolated phobia. In this case, all fears are limited only to strictly defined objects, events and phenomena. In 2002, the British Journal of Psychiatry described this phobia as a variant of a psychological personality disorder. This article draws attention to the fact that these doctors are not receiving attention from highly specialized professionals. In fact, research on this issue requires more attention!
Information for today
Today, tokophobia attracts attention in several slightly different variants. If desired, fear of the birth process can be different. Fears are based on fear of injury and pain. These fears may also be accompanied by feelings of disgust towards your child. A woman with such a phobia perceives the fetus living in her womb as a “foreign” creature. As a result, she simply does not understand how to force this “stranger” to become an “incubator”.
Types of tokophobia
In medicine, there are two types of tokophobia.
Doctors note the main form of deviation is that a woman never gives birth. In such cases, it is somewhat strange, where do all these pathological fears come from?
It turns out that psychological and/or physiological fears acquired in the past can be a cause (even including rape) when considering unpleasant events with sexual connotations.
Severe phobia can also be triggered by watching films that depict childbirth in all its glory, causing inexperienced women to panic about this horribly painful process.
Secondary forms, like the following names, can only be diagnosed in women who have given birth. A difficult birth, which brought a feeling of hell, becomes the most terrifying event of their lives, completely discouraging any desire to “go through the troubles” again.
Prevalence of phobia
The Institute cannot provide precise information on how women around the world experience various manifestations of tokophobia. Some scientists estimate that between 2. 5 and 14% of the entire female population suffers from this phobia. This is a categorical refusal to experience the joys of motherhood. Other researchers cite even more frightening figures — up to 22%. Read also:
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This growing trend could lead to a situation where no one will have children at all in the near future. To ensure accurate data, a group of women of different ages, nationalities, and degrees of phobia were tested.
Predictions for the onset of the disorder
Forecasts for the manifestation of deviations
How to identify a disorder in a woman
How to determine a woman’s deviation
Fear of childbirth. how to overcome the fear of childbirth. how to overcome fear of childbirth
In addition, it is worth considering a completely difficult situation when a woman really wants to have her own child, but is afraid of getting pregnant and giving birth in panic phobia.
Is pregnancy possible with tokophobia?
Fetal movement causes them discomfort, and their aversion increases in direct proportion to their size
- This irritates the growing belly.
- Don”t leave any anxious premonitions.
- Bad dreams.
- In most cases, after the birth of a child, all women with this disease fall into a state of postpartum depression.
Serious test
Serious test
The same patient who could not convince the doctor to perform a cesarean section agrees with him about anesthesia during childbirth. Such actions often lead to a decrease in labor activity, and the doctor is forced to remove the baby from the uterus using a vacuum extractor. The procedure itself is very dangerous for the newborn, so giving birth to a woman with tokophobia is a serious risk for herself and her baby.
Conscious consent to childbirth
Conscious consent to childbirth
First of all, most of these women do not consider fear to be an illness, believing that they are experiencing emotions that are completely normal for all women. And even if some of them knew their diagnosis, they rarely dared to express it out loud directly to their husbands, relatives, or even singing odes to doctors.
Therefore, they have to cope with panic phobia on their own. Often they have children not for themselves, but for their husbands (mothers, mothers-in-law) or simply because it’s how it’s supposed to be — every normal family should have children.
How to get rid of the fear of childbirth
