The present paper explored the longitudinal associations between prepartum Fear of Childbirth (FOC), birth experience, and mother-child-bonding. This study suggests that the association between FOC and mother-child-bonding is mediated by birth experience, pointing to the importance of a woman’s positive subjective experience. The paper is well written, clear, and detailed in its statistical analyzes.

Anyway, I have some comments: 1) beyond the role of depressive symptoms, a major limitation of the present study is about not having considered whether the sample involved had some kind of psychiatric comorbidity. In the Authors opinion, could psychiatric comorbidity contribute to some extent? I would suggest to provide a brief discussion.

2 I absolutely agree with the limitations described by the Authors. However, I recommend providing more practical advices with respect to the use of screening tools in the real word practice, especially by analyzing the screening context in the reference country (Germany).

A minor comment: which kinds of brith complications have been considered?