Objective To assess the association between fear of childbirth and duration of labour.Design A prospective study of women from 32 weeks of gestation through to delivery.Setting Akershus University Hospital, Norway.Population A total of 2206 pregnant women with a singleton pregnancy and intended vaginal delivery during the period 2008-10.Methods Fear of childbirth was assessed by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ) version A at 32 weeks of gestation, and defined as a W-DEQ sum score ‡85. Information on labour duration, use of epidural analgesia and mode of delivery was obtained from the maternal ward electronic birth records.Main outcome measures Labour duration in hours: from 3-4 cm cervical dilatation and three uterine contractions per 10 minutes lasting ‡1 minute, until delivery of the child.Results Fear of childbirth (W-DEQ sum score ‡85) was present in 7.5% (165) of women. Labour duration was significantly longer in women with fear of childbirth compared with women with no such fear using a linear regression model (crude unstandardised coefficient 1.54; 95% confidence interval 0.87-2.22, corresponding to a difference of 1 hour and 32 minutes). After adjustment for parity, counselling for pregnancy concern, epidural analgesia, labour induction, labour augmentation, emergency caesarean delivery, instrumental vaginal delivery, offspring birthweight and maternal age, the difference attenuated, but remained statistically significant (adjusted unstandardised coefficient 0.78; 95% confidence interval 0.20-1.35, corresponding to a 47-minute difference).Conclusion Duration of labour was longer in women with fear of childbirth than in women without fear of childbirth.

From 1992 to 1994, a prospective case-control study designed to identify preventable risk factors for Toxoplasma gondii infection in pregnancy was conducted in Norway. Case-patients were identified through a serologic screening program encompassing 37,000 pregnant women and through sporadic antenatal testing for Toxoplasma infection. A total of 63 pregnant women with serologic evidence of recent primary T. gondii infection and 128 seronegative control women matched by age, stage of pregnancy, expected date of delivery, and geographic area were enrolled. The following factors were found to be independently associated with an increased risk of maternal infection in conditional logistic regression analysis (in order of decreasing attributable fractions): 1) eating raw or undercooked minced meat products (odds ratio (OR) = 4.1, p = 0.007); 2) eating unwashed raw vegetables or fruits (OR = 2.4, p = 0.03); 3) eating raw or undercooked mutton (OR = 11.4, p = 0.005); 4) eating raw or undercooked pork (OR = 3.4, p = 0.03); 5) cleaning the cat litter box (OR = 5.5, p = 0.02); and 6) washing the kitchen knives infrequently after preparation of raw meat, prior to handling another food item (OR = 7.3, p = 0.04). In univariate analysis, travelling to countries outside of Scandinavia was identified as a significant risk factor, but this variable was not independently associated with infection after data were controlled for factors more directly related to the modes of infection.

Presence of anxiety and depression increased the prevalence of fear of childbirth; however, the majority of women with fear of childbirth had neither anxiety nor depression.