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Fear of pregnancy but want another baby, how to cope?

4 replies

tokophobia · 21/03/2026 19:26

I have an intense fear of pregnancy and I don’t know what to do as we want another baby.
I’ve seen tokophobia mentioned but I’m not scared at all of birth just the pregnancy part.

The reasons are that mostly I don’t like how I feel I don’t cope well with feeling different. In my pregnancy with my daughter I felt like my body wasn’t mine. I had panic attacks because I felt so unwell. I didn’t like the changes I felt out of control , I had an eating disorder for many years so I think partly due to this but also I had HG and really struggled.

I also experienced night terrors. I was pregnant last year and had to terminate due to the tokophobia. I’m on a waiting list for CBT but I don’t know if that will help.?

Has anyone overcome this ? I feel petrified . I keep waking up in a panic every night that I can’t do it and I get so upset as I’m terrified but then I desperately want another baby and I don’t know how to sort this out. The termination was awful as I didn’t want to but it felt like a full body and mind rejection of the pregnancy and then immediately after a massive regret .

OP posts:
Eyesopenwideawake · 21/03/2026 19:32

All kinds of phobias respond well to hypnotherapy. Is this something you've tried?

tokophobia · 21/03/2026 19:34

Eyesopenwideawake · 21/03/2026 19:32

All kinds of phobias respond well to hypnotherapy. Is this something you've tried?

I hadn’t even thought of that I will definitely look into it. I’m desperate. Thankyou ❤️

OP posts:
Patchymama · 21/03/2026 20:05

I'm a midwife and researcher specialising in tocophobia. Can you ask your GP or HV about your local perinatal mental health service? They may well have a specialist support pathway for tocophobia. You may even be able to be referred pre pregnancy. All the best x

tokophobia · 21/03/2026 20:36

Patchymama · 21/03/2026 20:05

I'm a midwife and researcher specialising in tocophobia. Can you ask your GP or HV about your local perinatal mental health service? They may well have a specialist support pathway for tocophobia. You may even be able to be referred pre pregnancy. All the best x

I will ask the GP Thankyou

OP posts:
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