Conclusions and Recommendations
The main goal of our study was to investigate how severely fear of childbirth is distributed in a representative
pregnant population categorised according to parity. We found that nulliparous women had higher scores of fear of
childbirth than parous women and those scores are higher.
This is a clinical problem. Also, fear of childbirth during pregnancy correlates positively with anxiety.
Women suffering from childbirth fear seem to be in need of better counselling and support. There is need to
study whether there are certain factors expressing fear and anxiety more clearly and also to study how effective
counselling and care during pregnancy and childbirth should be carried out. The characteristics of women not
suffering from childbirth fear, but requesting an elective caesarean section, and reasons for their request, clearly
need further study.