ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2025
The relationship between fear of childbirth and prenatal depression in pregnant women during pregnancy: a cross-lagged analysis.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceived partner support during pregnancy and its associations with anxiety, antenatal care utilization, and fear of childbirth: a cross-sectional mediation analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- The Effectiveness of a Prenatal Educational Programme on Fear of Childbirth Among Primigravida Women:Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2026Article
- [Prenatal fear stress impairs cognitive development in offspring rats by disrupting placental amino acid transport].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2025Article
- The mediating role of fear of childbirth in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and cesarean section preference among pregnant women.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Relationship among fear of childbirth, sexual quality of life, and depression during pregnancy: A cross-sectional study.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo analyze the reciprocal predictive relationship or quasi-causal relationship between fear of childbirth and antenatal depression in pregnant women via cross-lagged modeling.
methodsPregnant women who attended prenatal examinations at a Grade 3 A hospital in Bengbu City, Anhui Province, from November 2022 to March 2023 were randomly selected as the study subjects. A total of 219 pregnant women were followed up longitudinally three times during pregnancy using the General Information Questionnaire, the Wijma Expectation/Experience of Childbirth Questionnaire, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Inventory, and were then statistically analyzed using a cross-lagged model.
resultsThe results revealed a positive correlation between maternal fear of childbirth and prenatal depression score on all three measures (r = 0.426, 0.519, 0.420, P < 0.001). Repeated measures ANOVA showed that maternal fear of childbirth tended to gradually increase during pregnancy, while prenatal depression first decreased and then stabilized. The results of the cross-lagged model showed that the T1 and T2 fear of childbirth scores significantly predicted the T2 and T3 prenatal depression scores (β = 0.184, 0.112, P < 0.05). The T1 fear of childbirth score significantly predicted the T2 fear of childbirth score (β = 0.127, P < 0.05), but the T2 fear of childbirth score was not significantly predictive of the T3 fear of childbirth score (β = 0.060, P > 0.05).
conclusionFear of childbirth and antenatal depression interact with each other during pregnancy, and this relationship develops dynamically, with fear of childbirth having a more stable and lasting predictive effect on antenatal depression. Maternal mental health status can be assessed early in pregnancy via our pregnancy health care services to guide targeted interventions throughout the perinatal period.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.