Pregnancy outcomes in women with severe fear of childbirth

O'Connell, Maeve A.; Leahy-Warren, Patricia; Kenny, Louise C.; Khashan, Ali S.

Pregnancy outcomes in women with severe fear of childbirth

dc.contributor.author	O'Connell, Maeve A.
dc.contributor.author	Leahy-Warren, Patricia
dc.contributor.author	Kenny, Louise C.
dc.contributor.author	Khashan, Ali S.
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.date.accessioned	2019-04-12T11:33:36Z
dc.date.available	2019-04-12T11:33:36Z
dc.date.issued	2019-03-14
dc.date.updated	2019-04-12T11:27:22Z
dc.description.abstract	Objective: To compare pregnancy outcomes for women with and without severe fear of childbirth (FOC) reported in the second trimester of pregnancy. Methods: In a prospective cohort study, 389 singleton pregnancies were followed up using medical records of participants in a study investigating FOC in Cork, Republic of Ireland. FOC was measured using the Wijma Delivery Experience Questionnaire Part A (W-DEQ A). Severe FOC was defined as W-DEQ A ≥ 85, moderate FOC, W-DEQ-A 66-84 and low FOC, W-DEQ A 0-65. Outcome measures were birthweight, birthweight centile, gestational age, and Apgar scores at 1 min and Apgar at 5 min. Linear regression was used to assess the association between FOC and each outcome measure with adjustment for maternal age, smoking, parity and marital status. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in mean birthweight (mean difference = −0.03; [95% CI: -444.69, 315.82]), mean birthweight centile (mean difference = 0.03; [95%CI: -15.97, 23.53]), or mean gestational age (mean difference = −0.06; [95%CI: -11.69, 4.82]) in women with severe FOC (n = 18) compared with women with low FOC (n = 371). In the adjusted models, there was only a slight correlation between severe FOC and Apgar scores at 1 min (mean difference = −0.09 [95%CI: -1.28, 0.32]) and Apgar scores at 5 min (mean difference = −0.18 [95%CI: -1.16, 1.08]). Conclusion: While a slight association was noted between severe FOC and Apgar scores, overall findings are reassuring and could inform educational interventions which may alleviate FOC. Awareness of FOC for health care professionals is vital to consider women's mental well-being.	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	O'Connell, M. A., Leahy-Warren, P., Kenny, L. C. and Khashan, A. S. (2019) 'Pregnancy outcomes in women with severe fear of childbirth', Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 120, pp. 105-109. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.03.013	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.03.013	en
dc.identifier.eissn	1879-1360
dc.identifier.endpage	109	en
dc.identifier.issn	0022-3999
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Journal of Psychosomatic Research	en
dc.identifier.startpage	105	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/7760
dc.identifier.volume	120	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier Inc.	en
dc.relation.project	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SFI/SFI Research Centres/12/RC/2272/IE/Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT)/	en
dc.relation.uri	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399918310365
dc.rights	© 2019, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Pregnancy	en
dc.subject	Fear of childbirth	en
dc.subject	Tocophobia	en
dc.subject	Outcomes	en
dc.subject	Epidemiology	en
dc.title	Pregnancy outcomes in women with severe fear of childbirth	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en