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Tokophobia: An unreasoning dread of childbirth

2000; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 176; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1192/bjp.176.1.83

1472-1465

Kristina Hofberg, Ian Brockington,

Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions

Some women dread and avoid childbirth despite desperately wanting a baby. This is called tokophobia.To classify tokophobia for the first time in the medical literature.Twenty-six women noted to have an unreasoning dread of childbirth were interviewed by the same psychiatrist, who was not the treating doctor. A qualitative analysis of these psychiatric interviews was performed.Phobic avoidance of pregnancy may date from adolescence (primary tokophobia), be secondary to a traumatic delivery (secondary tokophobia) or be a symptom of prenatal depression (tokophobia as a symptom of depression). Pregnant women with tokophobia who were refused their choice of delivery method suffered higher rates of psychological morbidity than those who achieved their desired delivery method.Tokophobia is a specific and harrowing condition that needs acknowledging. Close liaison between the obstetrician and the psychiatrist in order to assess the balance between surgical and psychiatric morbidity is imperative with tokophobia.