TOCOPHOBIA, FEAR OF GIVING BIRTH, ON THE RISE

 

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.

~ German proverb

In them May 18, 2010,  (LifeSiteNews.com) is an article about how researchers are bragging that within the next ten years, in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology will have advanced so far that it will perform "better than nature" and sex will no longer be necessary for human reproduction.

"We are not quite at that stage yet, but it's where we're heading,' said Dr. John Yovich, co-author of the study, “Embryo culture: can we perform better than Nature?” as quoted in the U.K. Daily Mail. The study was published in the April 2010 issue of the journal Reproductive BioMedicine.

“Natural human reproduction is at best a fairly inefficient process," said Yovich. He and co-author Gabor Vajta, both Australian veterinarians, told the London Daily Mail that given that IVF is 100 times more “efficient” than natural reproduction in cattle, the same may be possible with human beings. “Within the next five to ten years, couples approaching 40 will access the IVF industry first when they want to have a baby.”

I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

The idea of normalizing sex and procreation as two completely separate activities was predicted in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World, where children are conceived and grown in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres, before undergoing a final “decanting” process that has replaced birth. Indeed, the thought of giving live birth was so shocking to students that they had to indulge in soma to remove the "ugly feelings".

Aldous Huxley ~ a member of the elite ~ wrote Brave New World, a dystopian novel that was, as we know today, was a blueprint of things to come. Modern “civilization” is well on the way to that future in which all things natural or unregulated were considered unnatural and bestial.

Now there rears a phobia called TOCOPHOBIA ~ the fear of pregnancy and giving birth. It is not a huge problem, but it is significant. For the longest time problems such as anorexia were not huge social problems either.

Has modern social conditioning become so separated us from the natural that young women fear the birthing process?  Is fear of pain or "loss of control" responsible for the current rage of unnecessary cesarean sections? Is it responsible for this phobia which is increasingly effecting young women to the point of actual illness at the very thought of pregnancy or labor?

 

At its worst, tocophobia can be so profound that some women, even those who yearn for children, choose not to get pregnant. It is difficult to believe that these reasons and fears are real, but phobias are just that way. I have seen people terrified of crinkled aluminum foil, so anything is possible. I wonder if such a thing as tocophobia exists amongst peoples closer to the Earth, native people, and people not so involved in themselves.

Some people are afraid of snakes, others bridges and tunnels, but a small number of women are phobic about the very notion of giving birth. According to reports, however, it seems the number is growing slowly but surely.

Take, for example, Karen DuVall, a 23-year-old college student from Vacaville, Calif., who was surprised there was a word for her unrelenting fear of childbirth ~ tocophobia.

DuVall's aunt had told her about a "third degree tear" after having her first child. Later, in a sexuality class, she was horrified by a photo of a woman giving birth.

"The more I learned about childbirth, the more afraid of it I've actually become," DuVall, a college theater major, told ABCNews.com.

"I'm afraid of my body being ruined. I'm afraid of having an aneurysm and dying. I'm even afraid that when I get married, my husband won't be attracted to me anymore after giving birth. I'm afraid that I just won't be me anymore."

 

 Is it that they fear the pain of death, or 

could it be they fear the joy of life? ~ 

Toad the Wet Sprocket

It's not that DuVall doesn't want children ~ she would eventually like to adopt.

Birth is the completion of a natural cycle and part of the human experience but some may not wish to participate in this completion of a natural cycle of life. The feeling of connectedness with humanity is so primal there are no words to describe it. Giving birth changes a woman irrevocably because, whether she knows it or not, she has survived “the ordeal" that has faced every woman ever born who got pregnant. We have been laboring thusly since time began. 

The new mother takes her place in the never ending chain of humanity. It is impossible to even begin to express how spiritually fulfilling on all levels this is. Nothing is ever the same, and for most women, no matter their attitude, the moment they look into the face of their newborn, nothing else matters, the pain is all forgotten.

There are no statistics available in the United States, but British reports have shown that as many as 1 in 6 women have extraordinary anxiety, and the number seems to be growing.

Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren  admitted to tokophobia in a 2007 interview, telling an Australian television show that her fear began as a 13-year-old when she saw a graphic video.

"I swear it traumatized me to this day," said Mirren, 65. "I haven't had children and now I can't look at anything to do with childbirth. It absolutely disgusts me."

A study of 26 women published in the 2000 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry said phobic avoidance of pregnancy is a "harrowing condition" that may date from adolescence or be secondary to a traumatic delivery.  It can also be a symptom of prenatal depression. Researchers emphasized the need for doctors to acknowledge the condition.

"It's more common than one would think," said Erica Lyon, author of "The Big Birth Book," who is a consultant for New York City's Tribeca Parenting. She counsels many older women who have waited to have children.

"I think it tends to be a woman with a type-A personality," said Lyon. "She may have a previous history of anxiety or depression or struggled with an eating disorder. We don't understand the brain enough to know why."

Pregnant Women Afraid of Loss of Control

Many women say they are afraid of losing control of their bodies during labor and an "unknown amount of pain."

We cannot control everything in life; it would be a tragedy if we could! Imagine a world without challenges and rewards, a world no longer connected to the spirit as well as the body. There will always be physical challenges we can take on, climbing mountains, athletic challenges to self. Since time began, most women are tremulous about childbirth, the ultimate physical challenge. They got over it. Yes, although it hurts, pain is fleeting.

If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living. ~ Seneca

"In your 20s, you feel invincible and you have not yet heard all your girlfriends' horror stories," she said. "There is the double whammy of slightly more risk and being adult longer to hear the negative stuff."

Today we have become far removed from the natural; as a result, most of us have lost our intricate and intrinsic connection to the chain of creation on more than a mere empirical level. Nature becomes frightening, its unreliability, its power, its regenerative forces.

Many common phobias include fear of heights, public places or being in closed-in places. People with phobias avoid what they are afraid of and if they cannot, they experience panic, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling and a strong desire to get away.

Some women say even the sight of another pregnant woman can trigger crying, hyperventilation, sweating and nausea.

"Fears can come in many forms," said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, a reproductive psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Birndorf said one pregnant patient was so frightened she insisted on a Caesarian with full anesthesia. "She didn't want to be there," she said.

Another was so terrified of the anesthesia that she had to be slowly introduced to the operating room. Another had a phobia about vomiting, and wouldn't get pregnant because she was afraid of morning sickness.

Sometimes those who are tocophobic have had an eating disorder or have been sexually abused as children. Phobias often run in families, but are triggered by events or traumas in people's lives. Tocophobia, like other phobias, can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy using exposure and fear reduction techniques or anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication.

The Pharmacological Solution.

"I always try to go the non-pharmalogical route and use behavioral therapy first," she said.

Karen Butler, a 19-year-old from Warwick, R.I., who hopes to attend college in musical performance, said she had been tocophobic ever since she was an early pre-teen.

"The thought of having some parasitic organism living and growing inside of me never seemed to settle with my mind ~ that, and the prospect of that organism tearing my body apart from the inside out never seemed too appealing," she said. "I realize that it is somewhat irrational to think this way, but I cannot get over those thoughts when thinking about getting pregnant or having a baby."

Our problem is not to be rid of fear, but to master it.

~ Martin Luther King

Butler has never sought treatment, even though she admits to a few other fears such as fear of moths, the dark, heights and drowning.

Butler founded a Facebook group, Tokophobia: For Those Who Afraid of Childbirth, which now has 54 members.

"I wanted a safe haven for people with this condition...and for them to know that they weren't alone," she said. "The more people that are aware of it ~ and understand it and accept it ~ the easier it will be for people like me with tocophobia to interact on a better level with the rest of society."

A report in Britain's Guardian newspaper blamed the rising fear of childbirth on the jump in women asking for Caesarian deliveries, a phenomenon that is also seen in the United States. The Caesarean rate rose by 53 percent from 1996 to 2007, reaching 32 percent, the highest rate ever reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The reasons are varied: an increase in multiple births due to in vitro fertilization, advanced age, more maternal choice and legal pressures, said the CDC. It stands to reason the fear of loss of control in an older woman. She is most likely used to control in her work,

"While the number of women requesting a Caesarean delivery without a medical indication has increased in recent years, this still represents a minority of women," said Dr. Deirdre Lyell, associate professor of maternal-fetal medicine at Stanford University.

Lyell said she had not seen a "significant" rise in Caesareans because of tocophobia.

"Hospital environments that are supportive of women's choices offer excellent labor support and pain control options, and don't unnecessarily increase the number of medical interventions are important," she said.

As for Karen DuVall, she said she feels thankful that adoption is a possibility and that her boyfriend, Dante Charlton, has been supportive.

"In talking with her about this, what it came down to was either choosing her for my love of her, or not choosing her because of something culture expected of her," said Charlton, 24, who is also a theater major.

DuVall said friends say she will change her mind, but she is steadfast.

"This is the way I am," she said. "I think adoption is a wonderful avenue for becoming a parent. I don't think I am any less of a woman for not choosing to have a baby."

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them. ~ Marilyn Ferguson