Fear and PTSD in obstetrics Improving care for pregnant women and their healthcare providers

The purpose of this thesis was to increase evidence based knowledge about fear and psychological trauma in obstetrics. The main aims of this thesis were as follows:
- to develop more insight into Fear of Childbirth (FoC) and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among pregnant women.
- to determine the efficacy and safety of trauma-focused therapy, specifically EMDR therapy, in pregnant women with FoC or childbirth-related PTSD.
- to determine the impact of adverse and traumatic work-related events on Dutch gynaecologists, as well as their coping mechanisms and support.
To this end, we conducted a series of studies with different designs to determine the natural course of FoC (HEAR-study), to evaluate the experience of therapists with EMDR therapy during pregnancy (VIP-study), to determine the safety and efficacy of EMDR therapy for women with FoC or PTSD (OptiMUM-study) and to analyse the impact of adverse work-related events among Dutch gynaecologists (WATER 1 and WATER 2-studies).