Oh baby!
A new study published by the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found that women who are fearful about the birthing process may wind up having a longer labor.
The Norwegian report studied over 2,000 women who took a questionnaire which included questions about their worries about childbirth.
When researchers looked at how long the women with the higher levels of pre-labor anxiety took to deliver their babies, they found, “[The] average labour duration was eight hours for women with fear of childbirth compared to 6.46 hours . . . for women without fear.”
Those who indicated they were nervous about childbirth also required assistance (forceps and the like) more often than women who weren’t fearful and had more emergency C-sections.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how anxious were you about giving birth?
