Objective. Most pregnant women are anxious about the delivery and up to 30% develop varying degrees of fear of childbirth (FOC). Secondary FOC occurs in parous women who have experienced a traumatic delivery. The aim of this study was to investigate the time to subsequent delivery and delivery outcome in women with secondary FOC, compared with a reference group.

Setting. Southeast Sweden.

Sample. 356 parous pregnant women with secondary FOC and a reference group of 634 parous women without FOC.

Design. Descriptive, retrospective case–control study.

Main outcome measures. Time to next pregnancy and delivery outcome.

Results. More women with secondary FOC had a longer interval to subsequent delivery compared with parous women without FOC (p = 0.005). Women with secondary FOC had 5.2 times higher probability of having a cesarean section than the reference group. Women with secondary FOC also had on average a 40-minute longer duration of active labor than women without FOC (p < 0.001).

Conclusions. Secondary fear of childbirth prolongs the time to subsequent delivery and the active phase of labor itself, and increases the risk for cesarean section.