Abstract overview:
The term "tocophobia" is a compound word made up of the Greek words "tokos" (meaning birth) and "phobos" (meaning fear). Tocophobia is defined as the excessive fear of pregnancy and childbirth in women. The fear of childbirth has intensified due to the global concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly affecting the psychology of pregnant women. The tocophobia rate in Europe before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was 5.3%–20.8%.

Aims and objectives:
This research aimed to determine the prevalence of tocophobia in Greece during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Method:
Method From February 2022 to August 2023, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in two public hospitals in Greece to determine the prevalence of fear of childbirth (FOC). Participants had to be pregnant women who spoke Greek fluently and were at least eighteen years old. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire was used to measure fear of childbirth in women who were over 20 weeks pregnant and visited the hospitals for pregnancy monitoring. A cut- off score of ≥85 indicated clinically significant fear of childbirth tokophobia.

Results:
In total, 484 pregnant women completed the Wijma Delivery Expectancy –W-DEQ(A) questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tocophobia was present in 24% of the participants.

Conclusion:
Comparing the rate of tokophobia in our study in Greece with other studies conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic that used the W-DEQ(A) questionnaire, we observed that the rate in our study was lower than the rates reported by other studies (e.g. by Soysal et al., 2024 in Turkey) and higher than previously measured rates in Greece and rates of tokophobia during pandemia in other European countries (e.g. by Zilver et al. 2022 in the Netherlands).