Hi Roisin,

Hope you're well and had a good weekend.

From traumatic birth stories on TikTok to the pressure of "perfect" pregnancy online, many women are approaching motherhood with more fear than excitement. While conversations around fertility often focus on whether women want children, perhaps we're overlooking a more pressing question: why are so many women frightened of becoming mothers in the first place?

Around one in four women experience significant fear of childbirth, while up to one in ten experience severe fear (tokophobia). Add to this rising conversations around birth trauma, unrealistic expectations of postpartum recovery, financial pressures and the constant stream of information on social media, and it's no surprise many women feel overwhelmed before pregnancy has even begun.

Hiba Siddiqui, founder of The Tenth, is available to discuss:

• Why birth anxiety is becoming an increasingly common experience for women.
• The impact social media is having on perceptions of pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery.
• How the pressure to "bounce back" is shaping expectations of motherhood.
• Why women feel underprepared despite having access to more information than ever before.
• What genuine support during pregnancy and postpartum should look like.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if this could be of interest and would be happy to arrange an interview with Hiba.

Thank you! Emma

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About Hiba

Hiba Siddiqui is the Founder and CEO of The Tenth, a clinically-led maternal recovery ecosystem supporting women through pregnancy, postpartum and beyond. She founded the company after her own postpartum experience exposed the absence of structured support after birth. A Harvard MBA, she began her career at Morgan Stanley before holding leadership roles at Gucci in Milan and Dubai and Farfetch in London. She is building the infrastructure for a new model of maternal care.

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