ABSTRACT
Background: The Covid-19 pandemic process has affected individuals' thoughts on pregnancy and having a child, as in many areas. Objective: It was aimed to examine the fear of childbirth in individualsin the pre-pregnancy period during the pandemic process in this research. Method: The research is of descriptive-cross-sectional type. A total of 385 participants who were of reproductive age (18-49 years old), did not have children, and were planning/desiring to have children in the future were included in the study. In the data collection form, there are questions about the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants,their planning of pregnancy and childbearing during the pandemic process and the "Childbirth Fear-Prior to Pregnancy Scale (CF-PPS)”. Results: While 72.2% of the participants were afraid of the future birth/birth of their spouse;41% stated that this fear increased during the pandemic process. The total mean score of the participants' CF-PPS scale was 40.49 ± 11.10. It has been determined that the fear of childbirth differs according to gender, marital status, working in an income generating job and income status. It was determined that those who have fear of future birth/birth of their spouse and those who have increased fear of childbirth/birth of their spouse during the pandemic process have a significantly higher mean score of CF-PPS. Conclusion: The pandemic process has led to an increase in the fear of birth of individuals. Most of the participants stated that they do not plan to have children during the pandemic period. © 2023, Dokuz Eylul University. All rights reserved.