A Prospective Cross-Sectional Observational Study on Tokophobia in Pregnant Women in Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background - This study is about tokophobia among pregnant women during childbirth. Tokophobia is the fear of pregnancy and childbirth. This fear may cause women to avoid pregnancy even though they desire to have children or to get a c-section in order not to give birth naturally. It affects women who have never given birth or who have had a traumatic birth experience before. It contributes to spreading awareness of tokophobia. This study was performed as no such studies have been conducted on tokophobia in Jaipur.

Materials and Methods - This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Jaipur National University Institute for Medical Sciences and Research Centre Jagatpura, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. A total of 109 pregnant women participated in the study for 6 months. Each participant provided consent for the study. FCQ questionnaires and the Tokophobia Severity Scale (TSS) were used to assess the phobia among pregnant women. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS V29.

Result- After analysis the findings reveal that 84% of women had moderate levels of tokophobia reportedly in the age group between 20-24 years. During the 1st trimester and 2nd trimester moderate level of tokophobia is seen. The P-value is less than 0.05 showing significance. A strong relation between anxiety and tokophobia is seen.

Conclusion- It is concluded that most of the women surveyed have mild to moderate levels of tokophobia. It is important to have a close bond between obstetricians and pregnant women so that they can share their feelings, their fears, and all their experiences and accordingly, counseling can be given by the obstetrician.