The publication that takes the fear seriously
Fear Free Childbirth exists because too many women are told "it's natural, you'll be fine" when what they're carrying deserves a name, an explanation and a way through. We publish the stories, science and straight answers they actually need.
What this is
Fear Free Childbirth is an independent publication and podcast covering reproductive fear, anxiety and trauma – tokophobia, pregnancy anxiety, birth fear and the traumas that sit beneath them. Since 2015 the podcast has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times across 180+ countries, and the site's articles are read by women in every stage of the reproductive journey: planning, pregnant, postpartum, and the many who are quietly avoiding the whole question because of fear.
We're a publication, not a clinic. The treatment side of this work lives with our sister site Fearless Birthing – founded by the same team – and when our articles point there, that's an editorial judgement made under our editorial standards, never disguised advertising. The team behind the masthead is on our team page.
The founder's story
Fear Free Childbirth was founded by Alexia Leachman – and it started with her own fear.
Alexia was the woman with no maternal instincts, the one who couldn't picture herself with children and reasoned it was always "not the right time". When an unplanned pregnancy arrived, the reaction wasn't joy – it was shock, fear and terror. She lost that baby in the first trimester, and alongside the grief sat something harder to admit: a small part of her was relieved. She knew then that something needed resolving. Years later she learned it had a name – tokophobia, the extreme fear of pregnancy and birth.
At the time she was training in therapeutic techniques, so she turned them on her own fears – and made progress. When she became pregnant again, the fear showed up alongside something new: the realisation that she did want to be a mother. Mid-pregnancy, she learned the link that changed everything – in birth, fear creates tension, and tension creates pain. So she spent her second trimester clearing her childbirth fears one by one. By month seven she had swapped the planned hospital birth with "plenty of drugs" for a home birth. Her daughter arrived in under six hours – a birth she describes as beautiful, painless and magical.
Her second birth, years later, was better still: pain-free and unexpectedly euphoric. Proof, as she puts it, that the first time wasn't a fluke.
When word got out, pregnant women started asking how she did it – and she discovered just how many women were carrying this fear in silence, each one convinced she was the weird one. The flood of emails became a book (Fearless Birthing), the book became this podcast, and the method she developed – the Head Trash Clearance Method – became the foundation of Fearless Birthing, where she now works with women directly and trains birth professionals. Her later work on the Reproductive Anxiety Disorder (RAD) framework argues for taking the whole spectrum of reproductive fear as seriously as it deserves.
You can hear her tell the story herself: My tokophobia story – the birth of all this.
Credentials
Alexia is the author of Fearless Birthing and Betrayed By Your Biology, and a qualified therapeutic practitioner: Reflective Repatterning (RR) Advanced Therapist & Authorised Trainer, Havening Therapist, Psy-Tap Therapist, NLP Practitioner, Thought Field Therapy (TFT) Therapist, Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) Therapist, and holder of a Diploma in Personal Performance Coaching (Distinction). Her work has featured on the BBC and in the Daily Mail, HuffPost, The Sun, Psychologies and Red – see press & media.
Where to start
- Terrified of pregnancy or birth? Start with the tokophobia hub.
- Pregnant and anxious? The pregnancy anxiety hub is yours.
- Need to hear it can end well? The stories.
- Rather listen? The podcast – 1.5m downloads and counting.