Haptotherapy as a new intervention for treating fear of childbirth: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of haptotherapy on severe fear of childbirth in pregnant women.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Community midwifery practices and a teaching hospital in the Netherlands.

Population or Sample: Primi- and multigravida, suffering from severe fear of childbirth (N = 134).

Methods: Haptotherapy, psycho-education via Internet and care as usual were randomly assigned at 20–24 weeks of gestation and the effects were compared at 36 weeks of gestation and 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Repeated measurements ANOVA were carried out on the basis of intention to treat. Since there were crossovers from psycho-education via Internet and care as usual to haptotherapy, the analysis was repeated according to the as treated principle.

Main outcome measures: Fear of childbirth score at the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire.

Results: In the intention to treat analysis, only the haptotherapy group showed a significant decrease of fear of childbirth, F(2,99) = 3.321, p = .040. In the as treated analysis, the haptotherapy group showed a greater reduction in fear of childbirth than the other two groups, F(3,83) = 6.717, p < .001.

Conclusion: Haptotherapy appears to be more effective in reducing fear of childbirth than psycho-education via Internet and care as usual.

Keywords:

• Pregnant women
• fear of childbirth
• haptotherapy
• treatment
• birth

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank DJ Pot for his support as confidential physician, as well as all the involved obstetricians, practice assistants and gynecologists who recruited pregnant women. We acknowledge K. Nieminen and K. Wijma for accessibility and the translation into Dutch of their text ‘Information om graviditet och förlossning för föderskor’ from their CBT program for childbirth anxiety [39]. We also thank all the participating healthcare haptotherapists for their treatment of pregnant women with severe fear of childbirth, and, last but not least, all the participating pregnant women and their partners.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval

This trial has been approved by the Dutch Medical Ethics Review Committee and is registered under ABR number: NL34900.008.11. Clinical trial registration: Dutch Trial Register, NTR3339.

Funding

This research received a grant from the Dutch Association of Haptotherapists (Dutch: Vereniging van Haptotherapeuten [59] and the Dutch Working Group on Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Dutch: Werkgroep Psychosomatische Obstetrie en Gynaecologie) [60]. The funders have neither participated in the investigation, nor in the writing of the paper.