Evaluation of the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on tocophobia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Non-medical approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have been proposed for the management of tocophobia. A new method of performing CBT is through internet. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of internet-based and traditional CBT on tocophobia. A literature search was conducted on qualitative and quantitative articles from 2000 to 2019 in Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane databases using search terms referring to tocophobia and CBT. Identified articles were screened in two steps; 1) title and abstract and 2) full text screening. The quality of the quantitative and qualitative studies was assessed using the quality criteria proposed by the Cochrane Collaboration and Jonna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist respectively. Out of the 382 relevant studies, 9 studies were eligible for the review. A high level of heterogeneity was observed in the studies (I2 = 94%, P