The impact of mental representations in pregnancy
- Women who are described as ‘Balanced’, for example, can provide ‘richly detailed, coherent stories about their experiences of their pregnancies and their positive and negative thoughts and feelings about their foetuses’.
- Women who are ‘Disengaged’, however, appear to be uninterested in the foetus per se or their relationship with it, and demonstrate ‘few thoughts about the babies’ future traits and behaviours or themselves as mothers’;
- Women described as ‘Distorted’ tend to be ‘tangential or express intrusive thoughts about their own experiences as children, often viewing their foetuses primarily as an extension of themselves or their partners’
1Levendosky, A.A.; Bogat, G.A.; Huth-Bocks, A.C. (2011). The influence of domestic violence on the development of the attachment relationship between mother and young child. Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 28(4), 512-527.
Babies in Mind: Why the Parent's Mind Matters

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