Dr Toohill is a research fellow in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University. Her PhD focused on a midwife psycho-education intervention for women with childbirth fear. In a randomised controlled trial she tested the efficacy of midwife counselling in women who screened high for childbirth fear. She found following midwife counselling that women’s confidence for birth had increased and childbirth fear levels decreased. She currently manages a project to translate this evidence to routine practice at the Gold Coast University Hospital. A midwife of more than 25 years, she was co-lead on the Queensland Normal Birth Clinical Guideline introduced in 2012, and is currently investigating enablers and barriers to use of this guideline. She is passionate about support for women to achieve normal birth, set up a publicly funded birth centre in 2006, the home of midwifery group practice on the Gold Coast.
Childbirth fear impacts around 20% of pregnant women. There is no clear definition of childbirth fear and this is possibly due to variation in its causation and how it manifests. There is a strong link between childbirth fear and operative birth, particularly caesarean section. Assisting women to understand the source of their fear and providing them strategies for managing fear assists in preparation for birth and in reducing non-medically indicated caesarean section. Psycho-education for women with childbirth fear is effective. This presentation will explore the reasons for women’s fear, why a midwifery psycho-education approach is important, how midwives are trained to provide psycho-education, how they apply it in their practice, and the benefits for women, midwives and health services.
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