Fear of childbirth among pregnant women during crises: the role of resilience and social support.

IF 2.1 4区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology Pub Date : 2025-04-07 DOI:10.1080/02646838.2025.2489545

Elad Mijalevich-Soker, Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari

{"title":"Fear of childbirth among pregnant women during crises: the role of resilience and social support.","authors":"Elad Mijalevich-Soker, Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari","doi":"10.1080/02646838.2025.2489545","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Fear of childbirth (FOC) can be significantly distressful for pregnant women, especially during a crisis. However, how FOC manifests during different types of crises has not been extensively investigated. This study aims to examine the contribution of women's perinatal characteristics, resilience, social support from their family, partners, and friends, and concern for the foetus to their FOC, and to compare their FOC in two different crisis periods: the COVID-19 pandemic and the Israel-Hamas war.Methods: Pregnant women were recruited through social media during two periods: One hundred and ninety-one women were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 173 during the Israel-Hamas war. The participants were 20-46 years old and completed self-report questionnaires.Results: Being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic, poorer physical health, at-risk pregnancy, and lower resilience were associated with higher FOC. Furthermore, women perceived greater support from their family and partner, higher concerns for their foetus, and higher FOC during COVID-19 than during wartime.Conclusions: The results highlight the vulnerability of having at-risk factors such as worse physical health and at-risk pregnancy, as well as the essential role of resilience as a powerful resource in women's FOC. They uncover that FOC is a context-dependent phenomenon and may be expressed to different extents under different circumstances. Professionals working with pregnant women should consider intervention programmes to develop psychological resilience to reduce the risk of severe FOC.","PeriodicalId":47721,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2025.2489545","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Fear of childbirth (FOC) can be significantly distressful for pregnant women, especially during a crisis. However, how FOC manifests during different types of crises has not been extensively investigated. This study aims to examine the contribution of women's perinatal characteristics, resilience, social support from their family, partners, and friends, and concern for the foetus to their FOC, and to compare their FOC in two different crisis periods: the COVID-19 pandemic and the Israel-Hamas war.

Methods: Pregnant women were recruited through social media during two periods: One hundred and ninety-one women were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 173 during the Israel-Hamas war. The participants were 20-46 years old and completed self-report questionnaires.

Results: Being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic, poorer physical health, at-risk pregnancy, and lower resilience were associated with higher FOC. Furthermore, women perceived greater support from their family and partner, higher concerns for their foetus, and higher FOC during COVID-19 than during wartime.

Conclusions: The results highlight the vulnerability of having at-risk factors such as worse physical health and at-risk pregnancy, as well as the essential role of resilience as a powerful resource in women's FOC. They uncover that FOC is a context-dependent phenomenon and may be expressed to different extents under different circumstances. Professionals working with pregnant women should consider intervention programmes to develop psychological resilience to reduce the risk of severe FOC.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

8.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology reports and reviews outstanding research on psychological, behavioural, medical and social aspects of human reproduction, pregnancy and infancy. Medical topics focus on obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and psychiatry. The growing work in relevant aspects of medical communication and medical sociology are also covered. Relevant psychological work includes developmental psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, behavioural medicine, psychology of women and health psychology. Research into psychological aspects of midwifery, health visiting and nursing is central to the interests of the Journal. The Journal is of special value to those concerned with interdisciplinary issues. As a result, the Journal is of particular interest to those concerned with fundamental processes in behaviour and to issues of health promotion and service organization.