Scared to give birth - tocophobia on the rise in the UK

A surge in cases of birth trauma being reported in the UK, are causing scared mothers to abandon plans for another baby as Tocophobia rates rise.

It has often been said that if women fully remember the trials and agony of a first labor, they would never have a second child. Apparently, this is exactly what is occurring in the UK right now. On Nov. 14, 2010, the British newspaper The Guardian, reported that a surge in birth trauma incidents is causing first-time mothers to dread ever going through the process again. Tocophobia, or the fear of childbirth, is on the rise. Why?

Traumatic first births are elevating cesarean requests by second-time mothers
According to The Guardian's, Denis Campbell, Britain's National Health Service, (NHS), is being forced to step in to deal with surging requests for cesarean sections by pregnant mother's terrified of the labor process, after enduring a traumatic first birth. Campbell writes in, "Too Scared to Push: Big Rise Reported in Birth Trauma," that in one area hospital, Liverpool's Women's Hospital, "The number of mothers who have asked for an elective caesarean with their forthcoming child, because they suffered trauma the last time, has risen 40%."

There are a number of factors seen as contributors to tocophobia but common sense must ask, why are first-births so traumatic in the first place? One entity under fire is the NHS itself, whose budget cuts have led to a serious deficit in the availability of qualified midwives. On Dec. 16, 2009, Verena Burns of The Daily Mail, reported the story of a former midwife spilling the beans on a standard shift in one of Britain's labor and delivery unit's


"Midwives in Meltdown," was a shocking read that told how a woman in labor, was virtually ignored throughout the entire labor process because her designated midwife, was too overloaded with patients. Unfortunately, wrote Burns, this was just one of several questionable practices that occurred on a regular basis such as mothers-to-be who were drugged to the max.

"Drugs keep the mother nice and quiet," the midwife told Burns, "which, of course, suits staff," too overwhelmed to be effective.

Consider these recent childbirth horror stories
On Sep. 29, 2010, The Daily Mail reported that Britain's NHS had formerly apologized to a mother whose baby was severely damaged in a forceps delivery. The mother's obstetrician had pulled on the baby so hard, that the mother was pulled down the birthing table. Furthermore, reported Jane Feinmann in "Forceps Left this boy Brain Damaged," when the baby did finally emerge, one of his eyeballs rested on his cheek and he endured a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain.


Jennifer Block of Time Magazine, reported on Mar. 12, 2010, that Amnesty International had released a report called "Deadly Delivery." Amnesty noted in this report that too many mothers were losing their lives in the US when having babies. Block's article, "Too Many Women Dying in U.S. While Having Babies," says that Amnesty claims, "Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006."

Is Tocophobia an under-reported condition?

There are no official current statistics on tocophobia rates in the US. Are these phobia rates naturally low in the US or are they going unreported? Tocophobia as a medical condition, is not well documented online by any reputable medical authority either. Yet, unsurprisingly, the condition can be found as a popular topic between mothers on pregnancy forums.

With the small amount of information able to gleaned, tocophobia appears to be downplayed as something easily overcome; transient in nature and according to the website, Wrongdiagnosis.com, classified, "An exaggerated or irrational fear of childbirth." Considering the current state of affairs coupled with Amnesty's report, can tacophobia remain labeled as irrational, when due to a traumatic first birth experience, requests for c-sections by mothers at a UK hospital, jumped a staggering 40-percent?


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