By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 4:16 PM on 15th November 2010
Some doctors speculate that tokophobia - a fear of childbirth - could be prompted by a more 'confessional culture' in the UK, with mothers sharing alarming stories of difficult births.
Expectant mothers are increasingly demanding a Caesarean for their second baby because their first birth was so traumatic, midwives warn.
In some maternity units the numbers of women wanting the procedure has doubled in the last year.
Midwives say that many were so traumatised by having their first child that they are putting off future plans to have more babies or even abandoning them altogether.
They also warn that birth is becoming far more stressful experience because maternity units are so overstretched.
Often women are left alone and scarred before and after the labour as midwives simply don't have the time to offer them the advice and reassurance they need.
The number of expectant mothers asking for a Caesarean at Liverpool Women's hospital, one of the largest female-only hospitals in Europe, has increased by 40 per cent in the last 12 months.
Other maternity units including those at Birmingham Women's Hospital, St Mary's in Manchester and Stepping Hill in Stockport report similar trends.
Meanwhile birth trauma clinics which support women after difficult labours say they have seen a doubling in patients in the last year.
Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said that many maternity units were now so overstretched that labour was now a more stressful experience for women.
She added: "If a midwife is very busy then clearly she won't have the time between dealing with women in labour to give others the emotional support and reassurance she needs.It's certainly having an effect.'
She also said that doctors and midwives were now increasingly offering women Caesareans if they were fearful of giving birth.
In the past it was only carried out in an emergency or if the birth was likely to be complicated, such as the foetus being in the breech position.
She added: Professionals are increasingly aware of the option of advising women to have a Caesarean.
'In the past the usual approach would have been to talk through women about what went wrong the first time round and give them support so that they could try and have a normal birth the second time round.
'We'd try and avoid saying to them you're answer is a Caesarean as it can cause several complications such as post-partum haemorrhage.'
Midwives also say that increasing numbers of women are suffering from tokophobia, a fear of childbirth.
In some cases they are being put off by the experiences of friends whose labours lasted 18 hours.
Midwife Debbie Garrod, who runs a birth trauma support unit at Stepping Hill hospital said that she had seen 48 women so far this year, compared to just 21 in 2009.
Simon Mehigan, a consultant midwife Liverpool Women's hospital said: 'Tokophobia is a distressing psychological disorder that is growing at an alarming rate.'
Typically, this fear is a result of experiences during the first pregnancy or delivery and can often be traced back to a lack of information or explanation about what was happening, he added.
Dr Tracey Johnstone, a consultant in foetal maternal medicine at Birmingham Women's hospital, said: 'Women are more frightened of labour and delivery now.
'Among women there almost seems to be a competition about who has suffered the most during childbirth, talking about 18-hour labours and the like, and that scares other women before they have their babies.'
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