Fear of childbirth refers to feelings of uncertainty and anxiety before, during, or after childbirth by thinking about future labor and birth or experience of others. Evidence on burden of fear of childbirth and its associated factors is limited in Ethiopia. In this study, we assessed magnitude of fear of childbirth and its associated factors among pregnant women in Eastern Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected pregnant women recruited from Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System—an open cohort consisting of continuous registry of health and demographic conditions in eastern Ethiopia. Women were interviewed and fear of childbirth was assessed using the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire. Data were entered using EpiData 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS 20. Factors associated with fear of childbirth were identified using binary and multiple logistic regression and described using adjusted odds ratio (aOR) along with 95% confidence interval (CI). Finally, statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 in the multiple logistic regression. A quarter of pregnant women in eastern Ethiopia had fear of childbirth. Helping women to have positive pregnancy experience requires strengthening antenatal care, partner support, and prevention of unwanted pregnancy. Although childbirth is a normal physiologic process, it is also associated with pain, happiness, and managing expectation with regard to the labour or its outcome—putting the woman almost alone to deal with. Fear of childbirth (FOC) refers to feelings of uncertainty and anxiety before, during, or after childbirth by thinking about future labor and birth or experience of others’ fearful response to childbirth and labor (Nilsson et al., 2018; O'Connell et al., 2017). Fear of childbirth is a complex and multifaceted problem that has been described as anxiety caused by the appraisal of a possible future birth and is associated with woman's expectations of specific childbirth experience (Hall et al., 2009; Wijma et al., 1998). In addition to resulting in severe pain during labor and childbirth, increasing duration of labor, using anesthesia, and increasing risk of cesarean section (Beiranvand et al., 2017; Kabukcu et al., 2019; Madiha et al., 2019; Mazúchova et al., 2017; Nilsson et al., 2018; OkumuÅŸ and Sahin, 2017; Phunyammalee et al., 2019; SerçekuÅŸ et al., 2020)—FOC is associated with adverse birth outcomes affecting woman's health and wellbeing in the perinatal period and beyond.

With Regards,
Sara Giselle
Associate Managing Editor
Journal of Critical Care Obsestrics & Gynocology