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Fear of childbirth; the relation to anxiety and depression
Hege Therese Storksen1, Malin Eberhard-Gran, Susan Garthus-Niegel
1Health Services Research Centre, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway.
Objective:
To study the associations of anxiety and depression with fear of childbirth.
Design:
A cross-sectional questionnaire study.
Setting:
Prenatal public healthcare in Norway.
Sample:
Pregnant women (n=1642) recruited during November 2008 until April 2010.
Methods:
Data were collected by a postal questionnaire at pregnancy week 32. Fear of childbirth was measured by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ) and by a numeric rating scale. Symptoms of anxiety were measured by the Hopkins Symptom Check List (SCL-25) and symptoms of depression by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
Main Outcome Measure:
Fear of childbirth.
Results:
Eight per cent (137 of 1642) of the women had fear of childbirth (W-DEQ≥85), 8.8% (145 of 1642) had anxiety (SCL-anxiety≥18) and 8.9% (146 of 1642) had depression (EPDS≥12). More than half (56.2%) of the women with fear of childbirth did not have anxiety or depression; however, presence of anxiety or depression increased the prevalence of fear of childbirth (odds ratio 2.4, 95% confidence interval 1.1-5.2 and odds ratio 8.4, 95% confidence interval 4.8-14.7, respectively). Women with both anxiety and depression had the highest prevalence of fear of childbirth (odds ratio 11.0, 95% confidence interval 6.6-18.3). Similar associations of anxiety and depression were estimated by using the numerical rating scale for measuring fear of childbirth.
Conclusions:
Presence of anxiety and depression increased the prevalence of fear of childbirth; however, the majority of women with fear of childbirth had neither anxiety nor depression.
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