Pregnancy and childbirth are a big time, full of so many emotions and so much anticipation! And while the process can be a time of so much joy for many, for others it can also be a time of great uncertainty and unknown that can bring on worry, concern, anxiety, or even fear.
For some women, fears around childbirth itself can become so intense that it can take quite a toll on their wellbeing and even impact the birth experience.
All women deserve support during pregnancy so that they can feel their best and have the most positive experience possible during their pregnancy, during the birthing process, and beyond.
So if you or someone you know has been struggling with intense fear and anxiety over childbirth, trust in knowing that you can get support. You can get relief. You can feel more calm, relaxed, confident, and centered as you move toward and through labor and delivery.
Today, I’m going to share some research that points to an effective tool that can help women to successfully reduce childbirth fear: EFT Tapping!
For some, childbirth can bring on a lot of fear
Some worry and concern over childbirth is a normal experience for most women. But for some, the anxiety and fear over the experience can become pretty overwhelming.
This can happen during a first pregnancy, where women may have fears around the unknown of the experience. Or it might happen in a second or third pregnancy after a traumatic earlier birth.
Common themes of childbirth fear in pregnant women include:
- Fear of not being able to cope with the pain
- Fear of the unknown and the unpredictable
- Fear of harm to the baby
- Fear of harm to oneself
- Fear of losing control
- Fear of being alone
- Fear related to the body’s abilities [1-2]
For some women, they may not even be able to identify the source of their fear; they are simply terrified about birth and don’t know why![1-2] And that is understandable. It is a major life experience that can be as intense as it is beautiful.
Unfortunately, elevated fear during pregnancy can increase the chance of a negative birth experience and adverse outcomes.[1-2]
It is so important that women who have severe fears around childbirth receive the necessary support to help them cope. Luckily, there are tools that can help, that are backed by the research, and that really work. One of those is EFT Tapping!
Tapping is known to reduce all sorts of fears
Tapping is a technique that involves Tapping on acupoints along the body’s meridians while also speaking and thinking about what is causing you distress. It combines the principles of modern psychology and ancient Chinese acupressure to support you in acknowledging, and then letting go of, strong emotions.
Research on Tapping has confirmed that the Tapping technique works really, really well for helping people with various fears and phobias.
In fact, several studies show that Tapping can provide immediate and lasting relief for everything from a fear of flying to a fear of small animals.[3-6]
But why is Tapping so helpful when it comes to the emotion of fear?
Tapping is so good at addressing fear because it helps to calm the brain and the body. When we physically tap our fingers on the Tapping points while also speaking and thinking about what we are afraid of, it actually turns down the fight-or-flight stress response in the brain that is triggered when we are in a state of fear. The process of Tapping lets our brain and body know that we are, indeed, safe…that we are not in any real danger and that all is well.
That’s why Tapping is so helpful in supporting us to release and let go of our fears so that they no longer hold us back or make us feel miserable.
And it turns out that Tapping works just as well for releasing the fear of childbirth as it does for other fears and phobias!
Today’s featured study confirms Tapping is also effective for fear of childbirth
The study I wanted to share with you today was published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice in 2019.[7]
It was a randomized controlled study, meaning participants were randomly allocated into different groups with some participants receiving the intervention, and some not.
The participants were 120 pregnant women, and they were assigned to either the control group, the EFT Tapping treatment group, or a breathing awareness treatment group for comparison. The women in the Tapping and breathing groups were offered the Tapping or breathing techniques as a supportive tool during different phases of their labor. The control group received no extra treatment.
All of the women were given assessments throughout the study to measure both their levels of distress and the severity of their fear of childbirth.
When interpreting the data, the researchers found that both the Tapping and the breathing awareness interventions appeared to be beneficial in reducing distress and fear levels.
But what was interesting was that the Tapping treatment proved to be more effective and have longer lasting effects compared to the breathing technique. The women in the EFT Tapping treatment group showed significantly lower scores for fear of childbirth, as well as lower distress levels in both the active and transition phases of labor.
These findings are pretty exciting. They tell us that a short, easy technique like Tapping can help women to move though the birthing process with more ease, less distress, and less fear around the experience. And that has the potential to be quite the game changer!
Tapping for childbirth fear: resources to support you
The research study highlighted above shows us that just a short intervention of EFT Tapping can lead to some amazing results, even when it is applied in the moment while women are actively in labor![7]
Can you imagine what it might be able to do when used throughout pregnancy and leading up to birth? Can you imagine the power it might hold to help women feel more grounded, empowered, and confident when preparing for childbirth?
Tapping is here to support you, whatever your worries, concerns, anxieties, or intense fears around childbirth might be.
Perhaps you can’t stop thinking about the bad things that could happen… You can Tap on that. Perhaps you fear the intensity of the pain… You can Tap on that, too. Or perhaps you have fears linked to your own previous experiences or horror stories you’ve heard from others in the past… You can also Tap on that!
Tapping can help you to release those fears so that your brain and body can return to a grounded state of calm, setting you up for a more positive birthing experience.
To get started, you can learn to Tap here.
Also be sure to head over to The Tapping Solution App for tons of support in the form of guided Tapping meditations. There are many topics specific to pregnancy support and childbirth fear, including:
- Pregnancy Emotional Support: Fear of Labor Pain
- Pregnancy Emotional Support: Stress About the Stress
- Pregnancy Emotional Support: Information Overload
- Pregnancy Physical Support: My Changing Body
- Pregnancy Discomfort and Pain Relief
- Pregnancy Whole Body Relaxation
And finally, check out this page, which offers a variety of great, free meditations for pregnancy and childbirth (including one called, “Release Your Fears and Anxiety Around Childbirth”).
Until next time…
Keep Tapping!
References
- Slade P, Balling K, Sheen K. et al. Establishing a valid construct of fear of childbirth: findings from in-depth interviews with women and midwives. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2019;19:96
- Wigert H, Nilsson C, Dencker A, et al. Women’s experiences of fear of childbirth: a metasynthesis of qualitative studies. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2020;15(1):1704484.
- Salas MM, Brooks AJ, Rowe JE. The immediate effect of a brief energy psychology intervention (Emotional Freedom Techniques) on specific phobias: a pilot study. Explore (NY). 2011;7(3):155-161.
- Wells S, Polglase K, Andrews HB, Carrington P, Baker AH. Evaluation of a meridian-based intervention, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), for reducing specific phobias of small animals. J Clin Psychol. 2003;59(9):943-966.
- Baker AH & Siegel LS. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Reduces Intense Fears: A Partial Replication And Extension Of Wells Et Al. (2003). Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment. 2019;2(2):13-30.
- Wittfoth D, Beise J, Manuel J, Bohne M, Wittfoth M. Bifocal emotion regulation through acupoint tapping in fear of flying [published online ahead of print, 2022 Mar 30]. Neuroimage Clin. 2022;34:102996.
- Irmak Vural P, Aslan E. Emotional freedom techniques and breathing awareness to reduce childbirth fear: A randomized controlled study. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2019;35:224-231.
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