Comparison between the childbirth subcomponent of the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale-Revised (TPDS-R) and the Fear of Birth Scale (FOBS)

Antenatal fear of childbirth could have negative consequences for both mother and child, which makes it important to measure symptoms during pregnancy. The current study additionally evaluated the concurrent and construct validity of the 5-item childbirth subcomponent of the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale-Revised (TPDS-R-childbirth) for assessment of fear of childbirth, by comparing it with the 2-item Fear of Birth Scale (FOBS). A subsample of 477 women participating in the Brabant Study, a longitudinal prospective cohort study among Dutch pregnant women, completed at least one FOBS and TPDS-R-childbirth assessment during pregnancy. To identify women with fear of childbirth a cut-off ≥60 was used on the FOBS and the upper quartile of scores on the TPDS-R-childbirth. The TPDS-R-childbirth and FOBS scores correlated strongly at each pregnancy trimester (r: 0.53-0.62, p < 0.001), indicating good concurrent validity. Furthermore, women categorized as "having fear of childbirth" based on the FOBS and TPDS-R-childbirth scores, respectively, showed significantly higher scores on the other scale at each pregnancy trimester (p < 0.001), indicating good construct validity. Thus, the TPDS-R-childbirth showed good concurrent and construct validity and could be a valuable alternative to the FOBS in the assessment of fear of childbirth during each trimester of pregnancy.