Therapy for Anxiety and Fear of Childbirth

You may notice:

• Feeling panicked or overwhelmed when thinking about your pregnancy, labor or your baby's delivery.
• Having difficulty sleeping because of worries about childbirth.
• Experiencing frightening dreams. 
• Feeling distressed before prenatal appointments.
• Avoiding conversations or information about labor and delivery.
• Experiencing a strong urge to postpone or skip prenatal appointments.

Perhaps a difficult childhood or adolescent experience, a past medical experience, a frightening birth story, or another trauma has made childbirth feel especially frightening.

An intense fear of childbirth is sometimes called tokophobia. You do not need to identify with this term or have a diagnosis to seek support. 

However your anxiety and fear show up, your feelings deserve to be met with compassion rather than judgment. If your anxiety and fear have become persistent or are interfering with your daily life, therapy may help.

 Therapy offers a private, supportive place to talk openly about thoughts and feelings you may not feel comfortable sharing elsewhere. 

Therapy may help you:

• Understand your triggers.
• Regulate your nervous system.
• Explore beliefs and past experiences that may be contributing to your anxiety.
• Process traumatic memories when appropriate.
• Strengthen your ability to communicate your needs and preferences.
• Develop a more grounded and flexible way of approaching childbirth.
• Feel more prepared, supported, and able to cope with uncertainty.

EMDR is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain process distressing memories, so they feel less emotionally charged.

Before beginning EMDR, we will:

• Discuss your concerns.
• Build coping resources.
• Decide together whether EMDR feels right for you.

EMDR does not require you to talk through every painful detail of your distressing memories. 

The goal is to reduce the emotional and physiological distress connected to your anxiety and fear surrounding childbirth while helping you feel more grounded and supported.

Through EMDR therapy, it may be possible to: 

• Calm your nervous system.
• Build healthy coping skills.
• Help to visualize an empowered approach for upcoming labor and delivery. 
• Release negative beliefs and shift to positive beliefs (such as "I can't handle it" to "I can handle it"). 

 We will begin by exploring what you’re experiencing and what you hope will feel different. 

Therapy may include:

• Education about anxiety, trauma and the nervous system.
• Building coping strategies.
• Processing of distressing memories through EMDR. 
• Supportive therapy. 

We will move at a pace that feels manageable and tailor the approach to your needs.

Therapy does not replace prenatal or medical care. If anxiety is making it difficult to attend appointments, we can work on strategies to help you access the care and support you need.