Journal Abstracts
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Reflections of a practicing obstetrician on the question of hospital vs. home birth, specifically addressing the issue of increased interventions, in ways known to be traumatic to babies, that are typical of many hospital births. This increased intervention has created increasing dissatisfaction in mothers of the birth experience. The attempt is made to simplify the arguments that support home birth when compared to the hospital management of labor and birth.
KEY WORDS: homebirth, hospital birth, midwife care.
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The aim of this research is to investigate whether postpartum stress symptoms may persist through time and whether these symptoms may he connected to temperamental characteristics of the child. The underlying hypothesis is that child temperament may both affect stress symptom persistence and itself be a stress source for the mother.
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The purpose of the current study was to explore associations between maternal anxiety and infant temperament. Participants (n = 60 women) completed measures of state and trait anxiety during the third trimester of pregnancy and again three months postpartum, as well as an assessment of infant temperament. Maternal trait anxiety predicted infant distress to novelty and limitations, and difficulty soothing. Antenatal state anxiety predicted less infant positive affect and lower attention-span. Postnatal state anxiety was related to infant activity level and distress to limitations.
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Reports of 32 adopted children who sought breastfeeding from their mothers are presented. Children were 8 months to 12 years at placement and sought breastfeeding from the day of placement to several years after. Some children suckled only a few times whereas others breastfed frequently over a protracted period. Suckling was comforting to children and assisted some in expressing grief over birth mother loss. Mothers felt that breastfeeding assisted in attachment development.
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Infant feeding decisions and practices were examined in a preliminary cross-cultural sample of the U.S. and Colombia using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Transtheoretical Model (TM) (Humphreys, Thompson & Miner, 1998) as a theoretical framework. The sample consisted of 80 participants in the third trimester of pregnancy, 40 were recruited in the U.S. and 40 in Colombia. As hypothesized, breastfeeding rates were significantly higher in Colombia than in the U.S.
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This study examines relationships between perceptions of control, postpartum depression, and physiological symptoms in women who gave birth vaginally or by cesarean. Extrapolating from a cognitive framework, it was hypothesized that women who gave birth by cesarean would exhibit lower levels of perceived control and higher levels of depression and physiological symptoms as compared with women who gave birth vaginally. Results were supportive of the hypotheses, suggesting that it may be helpful to explore ways of assisting women to experience greater control over their childbirth.
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The relationship between negative events from conception to birth, and suicide, is explored. From extensive experiential work with clients, based on the work of the British psychiatrist Dr. Frank Lake, the author stresses that something else is going on in every death by suicide, that is not visible. Hidden factors relating to suicide have their roots in the pre- and perinatal period, from as far back as conception to the birth itself. Case studies are included and types of suicide correlated to various pre- and perinatal trauma are discussed.
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KEY WORDS: Prenatal and perinatal psychology, attachment, neuroscience, emotion, self-regulation, somatic psychology
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The author's doctoral dissertation, Malattachment and the Self Struggle, offers an in-depth portrait of intergenerational attachment disruption, its relationship to depression and defensive personality disorders, and approaches to healing-all within the context of the fictional narrative of Pearl, for whom "mothering tears her open, then urges her to wholeness." This excerpt features an explanation of the effects and implications of an attuned attachment relationship between infant and caregiver, casting it as critical developmental nourishment and terming its corruption mala
