Exploring Fear of Childbirth in the United States Through a Qualitative Assessment of the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire

Examining the content and moderators of women's fears for giving birth: A meta‐synthesis

“…Women reported general concerns about the well‐being of the baby (Maier, ), the baby being born healthy (Beaton & Gupton, ; Brodrick, ; Eriksson, Westman, & Hamberg, ; Fenwick et al., ; Gonzalez de Souza et al., ; Lyberg & Severinsson, ; Melender & Lauri, ) and without any disabilities or abnormalities (Brodrick, ; Gibbins & Thomson, ; Melender & Lauri, ; Rilby, Jansson, Lindblom, & Martensson, ; Wilkinson & Callister, ). Eight studies reported that women were frightened that their baby would suffer physical injury or harm during the birth (Fenwick, Staff, Gamble, Creedy, & Bayes, ; Gonzalez de Souza et al., ; Karlström, Nystedt, Johansson, & Hildingsson, ; Melender & Lauri, ; Nilsson & Lundgren, ; Rilby et al., ; Roosevelt & Low, ). Women in six studies reported fear of the baby dying, experiencing a miscarriage or stillbirth, regardless of their prior birth experience (Fenwick et al., ; Fisher et al., ; Gonzalez de Souza et al., ; Serçekuş & Okumuş, ; Sjögren, ).…”

“…A perception of birth as a dangerous, risky event with the potential for personal physical harm was reported in several studies (Greer et al., ; Nilsson & Lundgren, ). In addition to this, women reported a fear of dying during childbirth (Roosevelt & Low, ; Serçekuş & Okumuş, ; Sjögren, ; Wilkinson & Callister, ). One study cited that women struggled to conceptualise how a baby could be given birth to without extreme injury as a consequence (Fenwick et al., ).…”

“…Women feared the difficulty of giving birth (Fenwick et al., ), that their bodies would be inadequate (Sjögren, ), that they would not “be able to deliver the baby” (Roosevelt & Low, ; Serçekuş & Okumuş, ), that the baby would be “too big” (Greer et al., ; Melender & Lauri, ), that their pelvis would be too narrow or that they would have insufficient contractions during labour (Eriksson et al., ).

…you see the baby on the scan and you see the head and you think… how could it get out of down there? (Greer et al., )

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“…Multiparous also reported similar concerns but they were based on previous birthing experiences. Women also reported fearing that they would make an incorrect decision with regard to how they chose to birth their baby (Greer et al., ; Roosevelt & Low, ). Again, uncertainty about how they would cope with the demands of giving birth was integral to women's concerns.

People say, “Oh you're a woman, you're supposed to know what to do,” and it isn't like that.

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“…Everything about it is terrifying and even though you may have a baby daddy or some family, everyone is still looking at you and I just didn't know; I didn't know what to do. (Roosevelt & Low, )…”