Fertility Treatment Trauma and Responding to Loss With Compassion
Clinical psychologist Dr Tara Seed on fertility treatment trauma and loss: why treatment can become traumatic, the losses no one sees, and how compassion helps.
Scared of pregnancy or birth? You're not alone – and you're in the right place.
Fear of pregnancy and birth is real, common and treatable. Here you'll find the stories, the science and the straight answers nobody else is giving you.
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Where are you right now?
Start with the sentence that sounds most like you. We'll take you to the stories, answers and next steps that fit.
I'm terrified of giving birthTokophobia →
I'm pregnant and anxious all the timePregnancy anxiety →
My last birth still haunts meReproductive trauma →
I keep putting off trying for a babyThe fear behind the delay →
I've had the baby – so why don't I recognise myself?Matrescence →
I support women through pregnancyFor professionals →
16.5%
of women worldwide fear pregnancy or birth enough for it to shape their lives
The fear that has no name – until now
Millions of women carry a dread of pregnancy and birth they've never been able to explain. It has a name, it has a cause – and it can be healed. Our definitive guide explains what tokophobia is, where it comes from, and what actually helps.
Read the guideLatest articles
All articles →IVF Anxiety: What It Actually Takes To Get To This Place
A midwife calls an IVF patient anxious. A woman deep in her own IVF overhears. What it actually takes to get into that clinic, and what changed when she put some of it down.
Matrescence: The Identity Shift No One Can Prepare You For
Matrescence is the identity shift of becoming a mother, as big as adolescence, and nobody warns you. On the becoming no one can prepare you for.
Explore by topic
What is tokophobia, really? Beyond "fear of birth"
"I didn't even know tokophobia was a thing – until my whole life started making sense." What the fear actually is, and why so many women live years without a name for it.
What if the anxiety you've been living with isn't just "anxiety"?
Anxious, disconnected, always slightly off – and never able to explain why. When the feeling you've carried for years turns out to have a name.
When fear takes over: the abortions we don't talk about
Some of the most heartbreaking stories come from women who did want children – but whose fear decided for them. Told with care.
Fertility, IVF and the fear that comes with trying
What trying to conceive actually takes, the losses nobody sees, and the fear that builds when it takes longer than you hoped.
Matrescence: who you become when you become a mother
The identity shift of becoming a mother is as big as adolescence, and hardly anyone warns you. Why it can feel so disorienting, and what helps.
New research on birth fear, explained
What new studies on fear of birth, tokophobia and birth trauma found, what they can't tell us, and what should change as a result.
Women like you
Real stories from women who carried the fear – and what happened when they finally got to put it down.
Fear Free
Childbirth
Podcast
Childbirth
Podcast
The podcast that started it all – back for a new season
Real women's stories, expert interviews and straight answers, in 180+ countries.
1.5M+ downloads · 180+ countries · Award-nominated
Free book
The Journey No One Can Prepare You For
Ten years of the Fear Free Childbirth podcast, gathered into nine chapters. Real women describing what they actually felt about deciding whether to try, being pregnant and frightened, a birth that went nowhere near the plan, and who they became afterwards.
Get the free bookNine chapters · about an evening's reading · free
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The best of Fear Free Childbirth – new stories, research in plain English, first listen on new episodes.