Is Infant Learning Egocentric or Duocentric? Was Piaget Wrong?
Freeman, Mac
Vol. 2 (1), 1987, 25-42

The author criticizes traditional models of child psychology, especially Piaget's, with their emphasis on an egocentricism located in the child's body from the standpoint of duocentric fetal learning. Four tentative hypotheses are that the fetus participates in duet learning through gestation; that the first duet learning early in gestation is profoundly positive, while later it may be negative resulting in duet ambivalence in the infant; that this positive and negative duet learning during gestation continues to influence personal development throughout life; and that positive duet, as the first natural learning habitat of the individual is "home."

The Relationship between Selected Daydreaming Patterns of Primigravidous Women during Pregnancy and Women's Perceptions of their Babies within One Month Postpartum
Blair, Carole L.
Vol. 2 (1), 1987, 43-49

This study investigated the relationship between three daydream patterns of women during the third trimester of pregnancy and their perceptions of their babies after birth. Productive, nonproductive, and dysphoric daydreams were hypothesized to be predictive of the mother's perception of her newborn. Sixty-eight primivivarous women were assessed using a 72-item inventory developed from subscales of Singer's Imaginal Processes Inventory administered during the third trimester. The women's perceptions of their babies were measured one month after birth using Broussard's Neonatal Perceptual Inventory. Results did not support the notion that women with productive daydreams would express a sense of harmony with their children. In fact, no strong positive or negative correlations existed for the group with positive daydreams. Nonproductive and dysphoric daydreams were related to the mother's negative perception of her one-month-old, which could be a useful diagnostic tool to identify infants at risk for developmental problems.

The Relationship of Sudden Infant Death and Parental Unconscious Conflicts
Gruen, Arno
Vol. 2 (1), 1987, 50-56

This study investigated 14 SID parents' interviews about their child's death. Families were culled sequentially from records of the Children's Hospital of Luzern to meet the criteria of Schmidt's "inconspicuous" group of all SID parents--the 18% who do not exhibit the social and personal characteristics most commonly associated with SID parents. Interviews revealed a preoccupation with death during or shortly after the pregnancy with the SID child, unconscious resentment in the mother-father relationships toward each other despite conspicuous social signs of unity, and resentment of the SID child prior to its demise.

The Effect of Infertility on Female Sexuality
Reed, Karen
Vol. 2 (1), 1987, 57-62

Infertility affects one in six American couples, only half of whom can be helped by medical means. This article explores the impact of long-term fertility on women's sexual identity, including grieving her childlessness, questioning her self-identity and role expectations, and affecting the couple's relationship.

Teaching the Unborn: Precept and Practice
Logan, Brent
Vol. 2 (1), 1987, 9-24

Various prenatal stimulation approaches over recent years have resulted in developmental enhancements in newborns. This article postulates that the heartbeat affects neurogenesis with such seminal information that a vertebrate's entire cognitive and behavioral life is epigenetically structured form this most elementary yet wholly overwhelming event. By providing a sonoral curriculum of increasingly complex departures from the heartbeat progenitor of sufficient duration for imprinting, neuronal development should be improved, including empathetic elements. Criteria for such critical processes are presented along with projected implementation: technical means, clinical modality, and evaluative methods.

The Primal Wound: A Preliminary Investigation into the Effects of Separation from the Birth Mother on Adopted Children
Verrier, Nancy
Vol. 2 (2), 1987, 75-86

Based on a study of 15 adult adoptees, this paper examines the assumption that adoption may be the optimal solution for children who cannot be kept with their biological mothers. It assumes that the nature of the prenatal physiological, hormonal and psychological connections to the fetus in utero and with the mother cannot be replaced by a substitute. It identifies several problems adoptees have to face as they adapt to living with people with whom they have no biological connection: a loss of the "ideal self" as a possible result of premature separation from the biological mother; an assuming of the "false self" as a means of dealing with the fear of further rejection and abandonment; and the relationship with the adoptive mother, which is often ambivalent and conflictual.

Prenatal Bonding, Prenatal Communication, and the Prevention of Prematurity
Peterson, Gayle
Vol. 2 (2), 1987, 87-92

This article presents some clinical cases of working with pregnant women to address the ambivalence that prevents prenatal bonding, which can result in premature births or problem pregnancies. Guidelines for visualization and communication with the unborn are presented as positive interventions.

An Anthropological Perspective on the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: A Testable Hypothesis on the Possible Role of Parental Breathing Cues in Promoting Infant Breathing Stability, Part I
McKenna, James Joseph
Vol. 2 (2), 1987, 93-135

This paper presents several testable hypotheses on the possible relationships between the development of pre- and post-natal hearing and breathing and SIDS. After reviewing the primate and cross-cultural literature, the author suggests that solitary sleeping arrangements may be a contributory factor. He posits that the links between fetal breathing and middle ear development are not coincidentally simultaneous, and that they both are affected by cardiovascular auditory rhythms. Thus the fetus is prepared to respond to repetitive auditory breathing, which can be supported by sleeping in proximity or contact with a parent.

An Anthropological Perspective on the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: A Testable Hypothesis on the Possible Role of Parental Breathing Cues in Promoting Infant Breathing Stability, Part II
McKenna, James Joseph
Vol. 2 (3), 1988, 149-178

Evolution and developmental findings suggest that human infants differ from those of other species in ways that make SIDS species-specific. Data from studies of breathing and vocalizing comparing normal-hearing and hearing-impaired persons suggest that certain breathing behaviors are learned, and that speech breathing and crying involve some degree of voluntary breath manipulation, both of which may make human infants more vulnerable to any number of breathing control errors, one of which may be SIDS. This may be why SIDS is so circumscribed by age since speech breathing starts to occur at 2-4 months when SIDS rates peak. It may be that human parents can beneficially influence physiological regulation in children through auditory breathing, such as in a co-sleeping arrangement.

The Development of Fears, Phobias, and Restrictive Patterns of Adaptation following Attempted Abortions
van Husen, Josefine E.
Vol. 2 (3), 1988, 179-185

This paper summarizes the traumatic experiences related by 48 survivors of abortion attempts in psychotherapy. They suffered mainly from neurotic disorders while some had schizophrenic or manic depressiveness illness. Regressed patients produced imagery that reliably related head to shoulder size of the fetus (correlated with fetal age) and information about the circumstances surrounding the abortion. Loss of siblings to the abortion was reported by some. Demonstrating the correlation between the present anxiety or behavior and its origin was not sufficient to remove symptoms over a certain number of weeks. Change required not only removal of the old but the learning of a new pattern once the original condition was resolved. Some cases are presented, with verification from the mothers of the abortion attempts and methods.

The Power of Joy: Pre- and Peri-Natal Psychology as Applied by a Mountain Midwife
Whitridge, Candace Fields
Vol. 2 (3), 1988, 186-192

Positive expectations framed by the health care professionals are shown through a series of anecdotes to have been associated with positive outcomes in a highly varied rural population. The author provides experiences form her own practice of bonding techniques for the parents of the unborn with the child and with each other to create an optimal gestation, birth and postpartum environment. Emphasis is placed on the mother's body's inherent wisdom and her capability to give birth rather than creating suggestions that may be productive of anxiety.

The Significance of Birth Memories
Chamberlain, David B.
Vol. 2 (4), 1988, 208-226

This article is an overview of the narrative memories of birth now being routinely collected in various venues. It identifies four dimensions: 1) Clinical, in which a growing literature indicates the importance of birth in many psychological problems; 2) Humanistic, in which birth reports are seen as first-person accounts of feelings, values, virtues and shortcomings; 3) Holistic, in which memories indicate a fully sentient, cognitive newborn capable of communication and intimacy; and 4) Transpersonal, in which birth reports indicate degrees of wisdom, caring, analytical thought, and other indicators of higher consciousness. Examples are provided for each area from the author's clinical practice. Reprinted in Vol. 14 (1-2).

Perinatal Origin of Eventual Self-Destructive Behavior
Jacobson, Bertil
Vol. 2 (4), 1988, 227-241

This paper summarizes results of three investigations: an ecological study dealing with the epidemiology of self-destructive behavior in the United States (unpublished), a case-control study of forensic victims in Stockholm, and preliminary results from an ongoing study of amphetamine addicts in Stockholm. The data suggest that obstetric methods are imprinted on infants, creating an unconscious need to repeat a traumatic birth experience as an adult. Traumatic births seem to be related to self-destructive behaviors in later life.

The Influence of Mother-Daughter Communications on Anxiety during Labor
Bonovich, Leah
Vol. 2 (4), 1988, 242-250

Clinical observations of patients in labor and their families directed attention to mother-daughter communication as an influence on the level of anxiety a woman may experience at the onset of her first labor. This reports on 296 primiparous daughters contacted during postpartum hospitalization. The length of the latent phase of labor was determined by direct questioning and physical examinations of hospital records. The mothers of these daughters were interviewed to elicit their recall of and their attitudes toward childbirth. Bivariate analysis of data showed that daughters whose mothers expressed strong positive and negative attitudes toward childbirth had a significantly shorter labor than those whose mothers expressed moderate attitudes. Multivariate analysis revealed different predictors according to race.

A Program for Improving the Psychosocial Outcome of Infants with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD)
Pidcock, Frank S.
Vol. 2 (4), 1988, 251-256

A new model of care was developed and implemented at a tertiary care hospital to reduce the number of invasive procedures and cluster treatment times to allow infants with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) to sleep better. As part of it, a weaning menu for all possible ventilatory and energy manipulations (feeding, thermal regulation, etc.) was also put in place. When extubated and stable, infants were transferred to a facility designed to promote optimal social, emotional and developmental outcomes with health care providers and the family. In the first 18 months of operation, the model decreased the length of stay required for infants with severe BPD, the number of emergency transfers, and the number of medications required upon discharge.

Pre- and Peri-Natal Stress--the Psychotic Individual
Fitzpatrick, Moira Pyle
Vol. 2 (4), 1988, 258-269

The psychotic individual often presents imagery, hallucinations, and behavior that reflects pre- and peri-natal stress. This paper presents a phenomenological model based on data from psychotic adults with a known history of pre- and peri-natal distress. An overall view of psychosis is described as well as the context of a therapeutic community system. The method of body therapy found to b effective with the psychotic individual is delineated and experts from actual interviews are presented.