![]() ![]() She stopped reading anything related to maternal health and began studying hypnobirthing. Still, with three months to go, she felt she needed more tools to fight her anxiety. She told her husband, her sister and a few close friends about her fear of dying during childbirth, and found that saying it aloud almost instantly released some of the shame. "I was really glad to have something to listen to and focus on, but there was a moment when I called the lady a liar and turned it off!" Levine laughed.įor Redfern, things began to improve when she finally acknowledged her fears to a more receptive OB-GYN with her practice. Levine said they helped her surrender to the pain - to a point. During labor, she listened to hypnobirthing CDs filled with guided meditations and imagery exercises. ![]() "It really did help keep me focused on the positive," she said. "The first time I brought it up, she was so dismissive," said Redfern, whose OB-GYN's response what something like, 'You've brought this up with your therapist, right?'" Redfern was so taken aback she didn't admit to not having a therapist - nor did she feel comfortable asking for a referral. Yet despite the range of ways in which fear can affect birth and the postpartum period, some women find little sympathy from their health care providers. Another study published in the journal BMJ Open found that "fear of childbirth appeared to increase the prevalence of postpartum depression by about three-fold in women without a history of depression and five-fold in women with known depressive disease." A Norwegian study found labor lasts roughly one hour and a half longer in women who are scared of childbirth than it does for those who are not. They also reported their pain as more intense than women who were unafraid - even with widespread use of pain medication. A 2012 study from Sweden found that women who feared birth were more likely to ask for, and to have, a C-section. Whatever the cause, research suggests women's angst can become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. ![]()
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