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EP138: When your body fears what your heart wants: Tokophobia, Reproductive Anxiety Disorder — with Alexia Leachman

 

The preconception conversation that nobody is having — what pregnancy loss actually does to the body before the next pregnancy, and why standard care is missing the layer that matters most. Join my FREE live training Preconception Readiness After Loss, Wednesday 8th July, 9:30am AEST. Register HERE

 

Now for todays episode:

Some women know they want to be a mother. And yet something inside them, something wordless, something physical, makes every step toward that feel impossible. Not because they don't want it. Because their nervous system has decided it isn't safe.

That experience finally has a name.

In this episode, I'm joined by Alexia Leachman, founder of Fearless Birthing, creator of the Head Trash Clearance Method, and the originator of Reproductive Anxiety Disorder (RAD).

After her own pregnancy loss and a journey to understand a fear she couldn't explain, Alexia has spent over a decade helping women and professionals understand what happens when the body fears what the heart wants most.

This conversation goes deep, and it might give you language you've been searching for your whole life.

 

We cover:

  • What tokophobia actually is — and why so many women live with it without ever knowing it has a name
  • The moment Alexia calls "the casse" — when a pregnancy test broke something open inside her that she couldn't explain
  • How pregnancy loss intersects with tokophobia, including women who terminate wanted pregnancies because their nervous system cannot tolerate being pregnant
  • Why the root of reproductive fear is often pre-verbal — rooted in your own birth, your mother's nervous system, and intergenerational trauma
  • Reproductive Anxiety Disorder: why Alexia believes tokophobia is far bigger than one window of a woman's life, and how it shows up from puberty through perimenopause
  • How unresolved reproductive fear affects fertility — and why the body won't allow conception when it doesn't feel safe to birth
  • The Head Trash Clearance Method: why Alexia built it, how it works with the energy system to clear fear from the body, and why she believes in getting rid of anxiety rather than managing it
  • What it looks like when two daughters are born into very different nervous system environments — and how Alexia sees that playing out now
  • Why professionals — therapists, midwives, doulas, GPs — need to know this framework, and what screening for RAD could change for women everywhere

 

 

Connect with Alexia

 

Resources mentioned:

  • Alexia's main hub: headtrash.com
  • Fearless Birthing: fearlessbirthing.com
  • Personal site & private work: alexialeachman.com
  • RAD white paper (free download): fearlessbirthing.com/whitepaper
  • Free 1-hour professional training on tokophobia and RAD available via Fearless Birthing
  • Books: Betrayed by Your Biology, Fearless Birthing, Clear Anxiety for Good

 

If this episode resonated with you:

If you're a woman who has felt confused, broken, or ashamed by your relationship with pregnancy, fertility, or birth — this episode was made for you. You are not broken. Your body has been trying to protect you. And there is a path through.

If you're a practitioner who works with women in their reproductive years — this is the framework your training didn't give you. Understanding tokophobia and RAD could change everything about how you show up for your clients.

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts if this conversation gave you something — it helps more women find their way here.