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Formation of mother's attachment to the child during pregnancy

"Questions of Psychology" - No. 1997. No. 6, P. 38–47
Brutman V.I., Radionova M.S.

The phenomenon of attachment (attachement) between mother and child has been the focus of attention of researchers in recent years. He is given great importance in the formation of effective maternal behavior, in the adaptation of the child to the world around him, in his harmonious development. Among the studies devoted to this topic, two main areas can be distinguished: comparative ethological and psychoanalytic. nine0008

Within the framework of the ethological direction, attachment is considered as an innate biopsychic mechanism that unites most animal species with humans (J. Bowlby, M. D. Ainsworth, D. N. Stern, M. Hubert, K. Lorenz, etc.). J. Bowlby considered attachment to be a primarily specific system, the meaning of which is to maintain the interaction between the mother and the infant, which is necessary for its survival and development. The first step to attachment, according to many authors, is the establishment of a connection as a result of early contacts within the first hours after birth. Kreisler (19)81, 1987) showed how the psychosomatic balance of the child is closely related to emotional contact with the mother. At the same time, her behavior is considered as reciprocal and complementary to the innate repertoire of the infant's behavior (D. Stern, 1977). Like any act of social behavior that is of fundamental importance for the survival of a species, attachment behavior has specific selective and triggering mechanisms: morphological features, special smells, movements and postures. The smile of an infant (R. Spits) is considered to be a specific human stimulus. More phylogenetically ancient, but no less significant for the emergence of attachment, is olfactory stimulation (Montagner et al., 1974, Engen et al, 1965, Steiner, 1979), along with visual cues, tactile sucking, and acoustic stimulation. The works of this direction analyze how the synchronicity of interaction in the "mother-child" dyad and the personal qualities of the mother affect the quality of the child's attachment and its strength.

In contrast to ethologists, who were primarily interested in the interaction of the child and the mother in the postpartum period, psychoanalytically oriented researchers have shifted their focus of interest to the psychic history of the mother herself and the period of her pregnancy, supplementing objective studies of attachment with the concept of their "phantasmatic" interaction. They focused on the significance of the formation of images of the child, in the imagination of the expectant mother, in her acceptance of her newborn child. The role of fantasies of pregnant women in setting up the “maternal instinct” is the subject of research, Deutsch,1944; Bibring et al, 1961; D. Pines, 1972; S. Lebovici, 1990, C. Bonnet, 1992; Savatie 1992. It has been found that mother's fantasies about pregnancy and child can cause relationship dysfunction in the dyad, disrupting normal attachment. The mother's relationship with her child is determined by her own history before and after birth. So, according to D.Pine, internal conflicts and anxieties related to past stages of development come to life at a given crisis point in human life (pregnancy) and affect the real image of the child. These conflicts may include both positive and negative manifestations of both one's "ego" and the woman's partner, include the continuation of ambivalent relationships with her parents and siblings (Deutsch,1944; Bibring et al, 1961). It follows that in order for a feeling of attachment to a child to be formed, a woman must integrate reality and subconscious fantasies, hopes and dreams related to a child during pregnancy (Pines, 1972).

So, from a psychoanalytic standpoint, a mother's feeling of attachment to her child does not arise suddenly - after his birth, but goes through a long path of formation, starting from the period of gestation (and possibly even earlier) and continues after childbirth, in close contact with the child. Thus, the psychoanalytic line of research brings the problem of attachment into a "purely human plane." nine0008

Analyzing the scientific literature, we did not find any works that would raise the question of the relationship between the content of experiences (the fantasies of pregnant women) and the physiological (instinctive) mechanisms underlying maternal attachment to the child. The reason for raising the question in this plane was the analysis of our long-term studies of the psychological characteristics of carrying desired and unwanted pregnancies, which indicates the important role of the bodily sensations of pregnant women and emotional reactions in the formation of women's attachment to their child. nine0008

Under our observation were 169 primiparous women aged 15 to 29 from socially disadvantaged groups of the population. The vast majority of them (84%) were single and gave birth in celibacy, 91% did not have their own housing and lived in parental families; 69% of women classified themselves as poor and low-income segments of the population, 72% did not work and were dependent on relatives, husbands, cohabitants. Of this number, 54 women considered their pregnancy desirable and retained their motherhood, the remaining 115 abandoned the child immediately in the maternity hospital. This group of "refuse women" is accepted by us as a verified model of unwanted pregnancy. The high proportion of "refuseniks" in the material is associated with the characteristics of the sample. nine0008

First, let's dwell on the nature of bodily sensations and emotional reactions in women carrying a desired pregnancy.

As is known, one of the main neoplasms during pregnancy in women is the occurrence of intraceptive sensory experience of interaction with the fetus. The formation of this experience is due to the fact that, starting from the second half of pregnancy, all women have natural sensations that are directly related to the movements of the developing fetus. Usually, women subjectively highlight these sensations and immediately distinguish them. They emphasize their unusualness, incomparability with any other previously experienced bodily phenomena. Describing these natural sensations of a woman, they usually resort to extremely figurative comparisons. This is especially emphasized at first, while the fetus is still small. Trying to convey their feelings, pregnant women tell how at the beginning they experience very vague, weak, poorly localized “shocks”, “indistinct movements”. For comparison, they use metaphors that correspond to their mood: “as if a fish swam”, “warm waves”, “soft touches”, “as if touched slightly”, “moved gently”, etc. The sensations experienced by a pregnant woman are usually emotional painted in pleasant colors. Pregnant women tell how they are constantly "listening", impatiently "waiting" for these signals, endowing them with an important meaning, as if "meditating" on these sensations. Periodically arising movements enliven in them a stream of fantasies associated with a child and future motherhood. nine0008

Subsequently, as the fetus grows, the sensual component of these sensations becomes brighter, acquires a shade of objectivity. Women experience "distinct pushes", "coups", "beats", "pushing". Pregnant women during this period usually begin to interpret the behavior of the unborn baby: “woke up ...”, “he worries mom ...”, “naughty ...”, etc. You can see how a pregnancy endowed with meaning inspires the expectant mother, creates an appropriate affective background with which she inspires her future baby. Therefore, in their experiences, his presence evokes a feeling of tenderness, is painted in warm emotional tones. To express their feelings, as a rule, diminutive suffixes are used: “my little one”, “little one”, “bunny”, etc. Thoughts about him cause a smile. Some women are so captured, immersed in these experiences, that childish features also begin to appear in their behavior. They become more sensitive and suggestible, helpless and softened. As D. Pines writes, "... rationality recedes and even the most educated enter the magical world of childhood." (D. Pines, 1990). According to researchers, during this period of pregnancy, an internal dialogue between mother and child usually occurs. A special emotional state that develops during pregnancy contributes to building the image of the child and, as evidenced by the studies of Kopyl, Baz, Bazhenova (1994), is included in her self-awareness.

However, in the process of development of even the most desired and meaningful pregnancy, women have conditions for the occurrence of a number of negative changes in the emotional sphere. At the physiological level, this trend is associated with the appearance of a number of completely natural endocrine-somatic and psychophysiological changes in the body of a pregnant woman. At the semantic level, this corresponds to a number of negative trends. Here are the fears and fears associated with the upcoming birth, sometimes reaching panic - “Will I bear the birth?”; and uncertainty in their abilities to give birth and become a "full" mother; and fear for the health and fate of the unborn child, concern about the deterioration of the material well-being of one's family, about the possible infringement of personal freedom, and finally experiencing one's bodily metamorphosis and, associated with this, experiencing one's sexual unattractiveness. Both of these opposite psychological plans develop simultaneously and, as our observations show, even the most desired pregnancy is stained with a special dual, contradictory, “binary”, according to L.S. Vygotsky, an affect in which joy, optimism and hope coexist, and - alert expectation, fear, and sadness. This ambivalent complex arises at a very early stage, when a woman is forced to decide whether to maintain or terminate a pregnancy. As the pregnant woman realizes her new quality, only separate and each time certain facets of this complex are highlighted in her mind, changing the consciousness and self-consciousness of the woman, including new images and motives in it. The ambivalent affective background reaches its apogee at the moment of childbirth, and its strength and severity of experiences reach an ecstatic level. At this moment (and this is especially pronounced in primiparas), painful contractions and attempts are emotionally tinged with joyful impatience, expectation, and the delight of accomplishment. Paraphrasing L.S. Vygotsky, we can say that childbirth, like creative ecstasy, “is the moment in which both opposite emotional planes are combined in one act, exposing their opposite, bringing contradictions to their climax” and at the same time discharging the duality of feelings that has been growing all the time in course of pregnancy. nine0008

Delivery, as a rule, sharply shifts the whole tone of affect to one side. The emotional state of the puerperal is colored by a blissful feeling of joy, calmness, pacifying prostration. A blissful smile shines on his face; women look with delight at the face of their newborn child.

Thus, in the case of carrying a desired pregnancy, fetal movements occur within natural time limits; experienced as "natural"; as the fetus grows, sensations become more and more distinct, their perceptual component transforms from vague protopathic into a more concrete epicritical one, and the woman's sensual sphere acquires an ambivalent emotional tonality. nine0008

Subjective feelings associated with an unwanted pregnancy.

An analysis of the subjective experiences of women carrying an unwanted pregnancy showed that their bodily symptoms and emotional reactions have a number of fundamental differences from those described above. With all the variety of individual differences, it is possible to identify common features and distinguish two extreme variants of psychological status. In the first case, there is a kind of "ignoring" the symptoms of pregnancy, a weak emotional reaction and a distortion of the idea of ​​the terms of pregnancy. The second, as it were, opposite variant is characterized by the fact that throughout pregnancy, women experience hypersensitivity to bodily phenomena, affective tension, fear, and depression. In the first case, women feel quite well throughout their pregnancy. Significantly less often than in cases of desired pregnancy, they have the phenomena of early toxicosis. This reduced sensitivity persists in relation to fetal movements. nine0008

Let's take one observation as an example.

Lena, aged 17, is married and already has one child. The second pregnancy occurred 1.5 years after the first and ended with the birth of a full-term girl. In the maternity hospital, the woman announced that she was giving up the baby. She explained her decision by the fact that pregnancy, unlike the first one, was unwanted and unexpected from the very beginning. She told that despite the fact that she lived with her husband and almost did not protect herself from pregnancy, the disappearance of menstruation was not at all worried, because “For some reason, she thought) that she couldn’t get pregnant. She explained her condition by the fact that she had repeatedly been diagnosed with ovarian dysfunction. I found out that I was pregnant "accidentally" only when fetal movements occurred. The husband was categorically against the appearance of another child, since he lost his job and could not provide for his family. In my heart I also did not want a child, but I was ashamed to refuse him. It was especially uncomfortable in front of the mother, who already knew about the pregnancy. At the same time, she did not want to quarrel with her husband, but to persuade and even discuss this problem with him, she considered it useless. After a short period of confusion, tension and concern, she calmed down, decided "not to worry herself ahead of time." nine0004