Fearless Birthing

🎙 Podcast | 📖 Book | ⚡ Awareness
Pregnancy Anxiety | Birth Fear | Tokophobia | Reproductive Anxiety Disorder |

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

https://t.co/W4izpkt4BG

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

Nearly 70,000 people saw my post about One Born Every Minute coming back. This is so much more than a TV show.

The forces shaping women's experience of birth go so much deeper than what's on screen. And what nobody is talking about is the nervous system of the person watching.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

@medialens thank you for sharing 🙏

[Media Lens @medialens]

A fascinating white paper arguing that anxiety about childbirth (tokophobia) should be addressed long before pregnancy. Is a male-focused medical system filtering out the obvious in relation to women? Read on...
https://t.co/lFbe4uQFqn

[Alexia | Growth Architect @AlexiaL]

It's time for some new language.

The tokophobia experience is wildly misunderstood. It is full of experiences that ONLY a tokophobia sufferer would understand. And sadly most professionals have no idea what you mean when you describe what you're feeling.

It's time for this to change.

Introducing DILINIA.

I called this the Two Lines Moment which reflected that moment of seeing that positive pregnancy test and realising that this was NOT OK.

I was not OK.

Something else was going on here. Something that until now, I hadn't made itself known so brutally. Sure there were signs over the years - and that's when dilinia starts.. when you realise that you're not like other women who coo over babies and can't wait to get pregnant. Quite the opposite.

Maybe you thought you just weren't maternal. But now, seeing the TWO LINES, it hits you. This way more than 'not just maternal'.

Dilinia is the realisation of 'there's something else going on' and when another life trajectory makes itself known. You might not know WTF that is, but what you DO know, is that you're not like those other women who get excited at the thought of pregnancy.

Maybe one day you get pregnant. By accident (maybe) like I did.

Then you get hit by the full force of the CASS. This is a gut punch of fear and terror when your whole world feels like it's collapsed. This is brutal and terrifying - at least it was for me.

CASS is the word I've given to the other experience that we need to talk about. Cass comes from the French to break. This isn't a panic attack, this isn't burnout - all words that we know and recognise for mental and emotional experiences.

This is why we need these words - so that we can tell therapists and perinatal professionals what we're going through and so that they KNOW what we're on about.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

A traumatic birth ripples out and creates birth trauma for mum and baby. When a baby girl has birth trauma she will likely fear giving birth and choose not to have babies (this is tokophobia and it affects nearly 50% of women)

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

More women DIE giving birth in America than in any other developed country.

And no one wants to talk about why.

America spends $111 BILLION a year to deliver babies, yet thousands of mothers leave hospitals with trauma they can’t explain.

Lying on your back? It makes labor longer, more painful, and more dangerous.

How about Pitocin? The truth is frightening.

Here’s what no one is telling you about childbirth—and what every expectant parent needs to know.

🧵 THREAD

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

@VigilantFox @MidwesternDoc THANK YOU for this!! The added dimension: a traumatic birth ripples out and creates birth trauma for milk and baby. When a baby girl has birth trauma she will likely fear giving birth and choose not to have babies (this is tokophobia and it affects nearly 50% of women)

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

We’re getting the word out there.

[UK Health Radio™ @ukhealthradio]

#Alchemy 1.01 with @jjstenhouse on @ukhealthradio - #Tokophobia expert Alexia Leachman and JJ on their new collaboration aimed at increasing awareness of this hidden, yet severe, fear of birth and improving lives - @tik_tokophobia.

👉🏼 🎧 https://t.co/KsYjpghTtq #wellbeingpodcast #ukhealthradio

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

We're finally live! Please share with the women in your life.

[Alexia | Growth Architect @AlexiaL]

It's LIVE!!! After many tech glitches we did it!
To help me celebrate... I need a click from you. This click could genuinely change lives.

My new podcast — Tik-Tokophobia — has launched.

All I want you to do is click the link.
Tap it. Let it download.

Why? Because if enough people do that, it’ll chart. And if it charts, more people will see it.

But this isn’t about ego. It’s not about me. I'm not bothered about top 10 labels. This is about getting it seen.

Why? Because...
👉 There are millions of women suffering with a fear they don’t have a name for.
👉 They’re stuck in anxiety, relationship struggles, career blocks, and deep shame.
👉 And they think THEY're the problem.

But they’re not.

They’re living with something called tokophobia — an intense fear of pregnancy and birth — and they have NO IDEA!

And if just one of those women stumbles across the podcast today and sees the title — “Tik-Tokophobia” — she might click out of curiosity.

She might laugh and think, “What’s that? A fear of TikTok?”

And in that moment, she’ll find her answer.
Her language. Her why.
And maybe… her way forward.

I’ve seen it happen.

Weirdly, over half my business coaching clients have had tokophobia and anxiety rooted in reproduction — and didn’t know it until I asked the right questions. I only did because I spotted the signs

And then?
Everything clicked.

Suddenly, it all made sense: the relationships that didn’t work, the unexplained avoidance, the constant unease.

It wasn’t them. It was this.

So please —
Click.
Share.
Help me raise awareness.

If you love the women in your life — friends, sisters, daughters, partners — this might be the kindest, quietest gift you give them today.
Thank you.

Link in the comments

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

@Tocophobie Thank you 🙏 lots more to come!

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

And we thought we were dealing with something called tokophobia..

[Alexia | Growth Architect @AlexiaL]

Women are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety as men.
That’s not an opinion — it’s backed by decades of data.

In fact, research published in the International Journal of Women’s Health found that women experience significantly higher rates of anxiety disorders than men — and the trend has remained consistent over time.

The explanations we hear are familiar:

"It’s hormonal"
"It’s emotional overload"
"It’s just part of being a woman"

But those explanations don’t fully hold up. And even the researchers admit that:

“Hormonal fluctuations across a woman’s life may propagate anxiety disorders, but the full picture is still not fully understood.” — McLean et al., 2017

That last line is key: we don’t yet understand the full picture. And I believe that’s because we’re not looking in the right places.

What if we’ve been missing the root?

After more than a decade supporting women through intense fears related to pregnancy, birth, fertility, and identity, a consistent pattern emerged. And that pattern had a name — or rather, it needed one.

I now call it Reproductive Anxiety Disorder — and I believe it’s the mother of anxiety for women.
This is a very specific form of anxiety. One that emerges from the deep psychological, emotional, and physiological impact of the reproductive journey — and which shows up across every life stage.

Here's how RAD (Reproductive Anxiety Disorder) can manifest:
🔹 Puberty → Shame, withdrawal, disordered eating, self-silencing

🔹 Sexuality & Fertility → Fear of intimacy, pregnancy panic, difficulty with family planning decisions, fertility struggles

🔹 Pregnancy or Conception Attempts → Full-body panic responses, shutdowns, what appears to be depression or prenatal anxiety — but is actually reproductive fear

🔹 Motherhood → Overwhelm, intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, control patterns

🔹 Perimenopause & Menopause → Emotional spirals, brain fog, exhaustion, identity collapse — often dismissed as “just menopause”

RAD is real. And it’s been misdiagnosed for decades.
Most women who experience this never get an accurate diagnosis. Instead, they’re told they have:

Generalised anxiety disorder
OCD
Panic disorder
Burnout
Hormonal imbalance
Or simply, that they’re “just emotional”

Meanwhile, their deeper fear — around reproduction, identity, and control — goes unseen and untreated.

We need a new framework.
I’ve seen time and again how healing is possible when we:

Name the fear for what it is
Address the root, not just the symptoms
Bring emotional safety and clarity to the reproductive experience
Train professionals to recognise and respond to RAD

This isn’t a niche issue — it’s a massive blind spot in:

Maternal and reproductive mental health
Menopause and workplace wellbeing
Teen and youth mental health
Partner support and relationship dynamics

So what’s next?
Right now, most professionals don’t even know this exists.

That’s something I’m working hard to change — through my white papers, practitioner training programmes, and now the launch of the Tik-Tokophobia Podcast, where we explore these issues in depth.

I’m sharing this now because I believe it’s time to:

Rethink how we define and treat anxiety in women
Shine a light on the role of reproduction in emotional regulation

Offer real solutions — not just management strategies — for anxiety rooted in reproductive fear

If you support women in any capacity — as a coach, therapist, employer, educator, or partner — this matters.

If we don’t name it, we can’t change it. And we certainly can’t heal it.

So here’s my invitation: Let’s start this conversation. Let’s name the hidden fear. And let’s give women the clarity, compassion, and care they deserve.

If you’d like to be part of the next phase of this work — from professional training to policy advocacy — I’d love to connect.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

We need a lot more awareness as to how we are affected by our perinatal experience. We are sentient beings for most of our gestation.

[Bri @manyroomsdiary]

Wait until they confirm that unborn children feel pain during labor. And that exogenous (synthetic) hormones & anesthetics cut off a laboring baby’s access to pain relieving beta-endorphins coming from the mother, which significantly increases their chance of going into fetal distress & further birth complications.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

Good to see this represented in movies

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

Tokophobia Podcast and Tokophobia book update - lots happening!

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

Join my free masterclass to learn why traditional therapy fails and what actually works.

https://t.co/HKSLDIOZI8

It’s time to start treating tokophobia for what it really is.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

We’ve Got Tokophobia All Wrong – And It’s Hurting Women

Tokophobia isn’t just a fear of pregnancy & birth. It’s an anxiety disorder.

But because it’s got the word phobia in it, people — including therapists — treat it like a simple fear.

🧵

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

💡 So why isn’t anyone talking about it?

Because we’ve been thinking about it all wrong. And that’s why women are suffering in silence.
If you’re a therapist, birth professional, or healer, you need to understand tokophobia.

[Fearless Birthing @tik_tokophobia]

New podcast incoming

[Fearless Motherhood Podcast @FearlessMthrhod]

From Tocophobia to triumph! Discover the transformative journey of birth with Alexia Leachman. Whether you’re expecting or simply curious, this episode is a must-listen for all! 🎙️ #FearlessMotherhoodPodcast #Empowerment #tocophobia #childbirth #painfreebirth