I am very frightened of giving birth: how do I overcome it?

Fear of giving birth arises from a profound change in perspective of the concept of birth over the past decades. The extreme medicalisation of birth has led women to lose confidence in their innate ability to give birth and to generate many more fears related to the birthing event.

 Childbirth as an extraordinary event

Part of these fears originate from being constantly exposed to traumatic and negative birth stories by friends or relatives, but also reported on television/movies etc. The society and culture in which we live has accustomed us to associate birth with a traumatic event rather than a physiological event in a woman’s life, which, if experienced with awareness, can be an extraordinary and emotional event.

Negativity about birth can create biased thoughts, which can have a profound impact on our minds and how we perceive the birthing process. Several studies have shown that negative information attracts more attention and is therefore perceived as truthful and having greater validity.

However, you and your partner need to live your experience in your own way and not on the basis of the many negative stories you hear. Negativity can deeply affect your self-esteem and increase your lack of confidence in your body’s ability to give birth.

Fear of childbirth, how to overcome it

Usually, we are afraid of what we do not know thoroughly, which is why it is essential to receive adequate information and support during pregnancy.

Among the most common thoughts you might have:

I will not be able to cope with the pain during labour

I will lose control of the situation

I will not receive appropriate support from my partner or health professionals

I will face a very long labour

The best way to arrive at the birthing day prepared and calm is to become aware of your emotions, to process them and decide how to deal with them, and to inform yourself properly (by experienced and qualified medical professionals without relying on stories from acquaintances) about the whole process of labour and birth, from a physical, emotional and hormonal point of view.

Only in this way will you have complete awareness and confidence in yourself and your body, and this will allow you to experience birth positively and more serenely.

When you plan, for example, a trip, you will inform yourself about a lot of things, looking for alternatives if a certain thing does not convince you; you will try to find out more about that particular country so that, when you are there, whatever situation arises, it will not frighten you because you will know perfectly well how to deal with it, who to turn to and what could help you to solve it as quickly as possible. This can only happen if you inform yourself beforehand and leave prepared.

Why not do the same with birth, perhaps the most significant event in our lives?