Stop the fear and embrace birth

As one of us has noted in a previous publication: 'We cannot hope to be able to deal with women's fear of childbirth unless we are willing to examine our own, and recognize how we can and do contribute to women's fear' (Dahlen, 2010). Fear of childbirth in women has been extensively studied but much less has been written about health provider fear, and about this fear may impact on women and birth. Fear in maternity care has been transcribed into our DNA, so to speak, passed on from health provider to health provider, and most worryingly from health provider to women. The birth environments also construct fear in a way that affects both the expectations and experiences of childbearing women, and the practice of health professionals. The most urgent message in the roar behind the silence should be to stop the fear now! To do this, though, we need to turn our focus towards the way we see birth, and onto the environments we provide for women to birth in. To address these issues, Hannah begins this chapter by examining the culture of fear, with a particular focus on health professionals. Kathryn goes on to explore the role of environment in affecting not only childbearing women, but maternity care professionals as well. We both then discuss shifting the focus from fear to compassionate care for all those providers and receiving maternity services.