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Fear of childbirth, mental health, and medication use during pregnancy

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Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the associations between medication use, fear of childbirth, and maternal mental health. Pregnant women (n = 1,984) were recruited through routine antenatal care at a Norwegian hospital from November 2008 through April 2010. Data were collected by three self-completed questionnaires at pregnancy week 17 and 32 and at 8 weeks postpartum. Fear of childbirth was measured by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ). Symptoms of anxiety were measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-25) and symptoms of depression by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). In total, 57.7 % of the women used medications during pregnancy. Analgesics were used by 55.8 % of the women and psychotropic medications by 1.8 %. In all, 7.8 % of the women reported fear of childbirth (W-DEQ >85), the prevalence of anxiety (SCL >18) was 11.8 % and the prevalence of depression (EPDS >13) was 8.1 %. Fear of childbirth was significantly associated with use of psychotropic drugs (OR 3.63; 95 % CI 1.39–9.43) but not with the use of analgesics or medications in general. The presence of symptoms of anxiety or depression increased the magnitude of this association. Fear of childbirth is associated with an increased use of psychotropic medication. This finding could not only be explained by an overlap between fear of childbirth and impaired mental health.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to all the participating women. We thank Tone Breines Simonsen, Wenche Leithe, and Ishtiaq Khushi for the data collection. The Ahus cohort study is supported by grants from the Norwegian Research Council, Project number: 191098. The present study is also supported by and the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Society.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Hedvig Nordeng.

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Nordeng, H., Hansen, C., Garthus-Niegel, S. et al. Fear of childbirth, mental health, and medication use during pregnancy. Arch Womens Ment Health 15, 203–209 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-012-0278-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-012-0278-y

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