Background: There is increasing evidence that fear of birth can have long-term effects on the childbearing woman and the method of birth.Aim: To examine differences between five hospitals in Norway in the occurrence of fear of birth, counselling received and method of birth. Method: Source data was from the Norwegian cohort of the Bidens study and retrieved through a questionnaire and electronic patient records from five different hospitals in Oslo, Drammen, Tromsø, Ålesund and Trondheim, which included 2145 women. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire measured fear of birth, and a cut-off of ≥ 85 was used to define fear of birth.Results: In total, 12% of the women reported fear of birth, with no significant differences between the different units. A total of 8.7% received counselling according to hospital obstetrical records, varying significantly from 5.7% in Drammen to 12.7% in Oslo. Only 24.9% of the women with fear of birth had counselling at their hospital. All the units provided