What I'd tell my younger sister

Fear or pregnancy and childbirth: talking tokophobia with Sonia

Listen Later

It’s safe to say many (most?) of us have some fears when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. Everything is new, we know there will be discomfort and pain, and there’s so much that’s unknown and out of our control. But what about when the fear feels too much to handle?


In today’s episode, we’re talking with Sonia about her experience with tokophobia (the fear of pregnancy and birth), how it showed up for her, and how she worked through it.


In this episode, we talk about:

  • Updates, including: first haircuts, a weekend of solo parenting, teething woes
  • Fear of childbirth, aka tokophobia and the ways it shows up, including primary tokophobia (fear of pregnancy and birth) and secondary tokophobia (fear following a negative childbirth experience)
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and how it can manifest
  • The late-night mom text group
  • The segregation between age groups in our society and how it prevents us from learning about different life stages - from those with experience
  • The power of sharing birth stories
  • When life plans get flipped upside down
  • Struggles to keep the house in order as parents with ADHD—and what you can do to get on top of them
  • Feeling “not ready” to start trying for kids, and when it’s more than just not being ready
  • Overcoming tokophobia with the help of a counsellor
  • Fear of medical interventions in pregnancy and childbirth
  • Fear or losing yourself in motherhood
  • Tackling parenting problems as a team with your partner
  • The primal experience of childbirth and how it shuts off executive functioning
  • Managing pre-gestational diabetes (the cravings!!!)
  • The importance of caring for yourself during pregnancy and as a new parent
  • What you can do if you’re experiencing tokophobia


    • In this episode, we reference:

    • Peanut app
    • Tokophobia (and its etymology)
    • Executive functioning and the amygdala
    • Sistema Cheve and the 2021 expedition report


      • ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store
      What I'd tell my younger sisterBy What I'd tell my younger sister