When people talk about birth trauma, they’re usually referring to the trauma a mother experiences while giving birth. But there’s another kind of birth trauma that almost no one talks about — the trauma of being born.
This experience — what happens to us in the womb and during birth — imprints on us in ways that affect our mental health, emotional responses, and even our subconscious fears. And yet, most people don’t even realise it’s there.
This is what we call In-Utero & Birth Imprint Trauma — the unseen force shaping our deepest anxieties, including tokophobia (Reproductive Anxiety Disorder), pregnancy fears, and perinatal mental health.
What Is In-Utero & Birth Imprint Trauma?
This term refers to the emotional and physiological imprint left by our time in the womb and our birth experience. It’s the earliest form of trauma a human can experience, and it happens before we have words, before we have conscious memory.
In-Utero Trauma happens while we are still developing inside the womb. It can be caused by:
- A highly stressed or anxious mother, whose cortisol levels impact fetal development.
- Trauma experienced by the mother—medical complications, relationship stress, or external events.
- Feeling unwanted, rejected, or unsafe due to the emotional state of the mother or external circumstances.
Birth Imprint Trauma happens during the birth process itself. It can be caused by:
- Interventions like forceps, C-sections, or inductions—which can create subconscious imprints of force, urgency, or feeling out of control.
- A traumatic or prolonged labour, leading to feelings of being trapped, overwhelmed, or powerless.
- Separation from the mother after birth, such as being placed in an incubator or NICU, which can create deep-rooted abandonment fears.
Why Does This Matter?
Your nervous system is shaped by your earliest experiences.
If your in-utero and birth experiences were stressful, frightening, or traumatic, your body remembers — even if your conscious mind doesn’t.
This can lead to:
- Pregnancy Anxiety & Tokophobia – An unconscious terror at the idea of pregnancy, birth, or parenthood.
- Anxiety Disorders & Fear-Based Thinking – A tendency toward hypervigilance, feeling unsafe, or difficulty trusting life.
- Relationship & Attachment Issues – Deep-rooted fears of abandonment, feeling unworthy, or struggling with emotional closeness.
In other words, your earliest experiences shape how you feel about safety, control, and trust — three of the biggest issues that show up for women with tokophobia and reproductive anxiety.
The Missing Link in Birth Work & Mental Health
The reason tokophobia and pregnancy anxiety are so misunderstood is that no one is connecting the dots between:
- The mother’s trauma in birth
- The baby’s experience of birth (In-Utero & Birth Imprint Trauma)
- The long-term psychological impact of these imprints
Mental health professionals, birth workers, and even trauma specialists rarely consider that a person’s own birth experience could be at the root of their anxiety.
But once you understand this connection, everything changes.
How Do We Heal This?
Unlike fears that develop later in life, In-Utero & Birth Imprint Trauma is pre-verbal — which means it cannot be fully healed through traditional talk therapy alone.
Instead, deep healing methods like Head Trash Clearance help to:
- Access the subconscious fears and imprints buried in the body.
- Release emotional trauma stored since birth.
- Reprogram the nervous system so it no longer operates in survival mode.
It’s Time to Talk About This
For too long, birth trauma has only been seen through the lens of the mother’s experience. But we need to expand the conversation to include the baby’s experience too — because that baby grows up.
And if we don’t heal these imprints?
That baby becomes the anxious adult who doesn’t know why she’s terrified of pregnancy.
This is the missing piece in birth work.
This is the missing piece in perinatal mental health.
And this is why so many women are struggling — without even realising why.
🎙 Want to learn more? We’ll be discussing this on the Tik-Tokophobia podcast — stay tuned.
Alexia supports families planning pregnancy and birth. She helps them to overcome their fears and feel calm and confident about birth and pregnancy.
Alexia also trains birth professionals in the Fearless Birthing, a unique approach to birth preparation that is ideal for those who have fears around birth.
- The Root of Toko: What If the Fear Didn’t Start With You? - 10th June 2025
- JJ’s Tokophobia and Its Hidden Impact on Creativity and Relationships - 3rd June 2025
- I Thought I Was Just “Anxious” — Then I Found the Real Root - 27th May 2025
