becoming a mother research
‘Culture’ is often considered in terms of identifiable artefacts, rules and practices, with less attention given to how investment in these features comes about. Using data extracts from a case study of a young woman who is becoming a mother for the first time, we pay attention to how people react to cultural processes in terms of how they ‘feel’. We use our own affective and reflective responses to interviews and observational material about... more
This paper describes two events illustrating transference phenomena occurring in a longitudinal research study using laboratory-based video recording and home-based observations to explore social relationships between same-aged babies. One event concerned the mothers’ attachment to the researcher and to the project, with consequent reactions to the project’s ending. The other concerned two mothers’ responses to a video recording of the... more
Becoming a mother for the first time profoundly affects a woman’s sense of who she is. She must deal with emotional demands of her baby, adjust to changes in her relationship with the baby’s father and wider family, and integrate competing desires for or pressures to resume paid work. The experience of the transition varies for individuals, but particularly across cultures, historical epochs and economic circumstances.
This paper... more
Becoming a mother can create profound changes for a woman’s sense of who she is. This paper presents findings from a study on mothering identity involving 20 first-time mothers from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds interviewed about their experiences before the baby’s birth and during and at the end of the first year. 6 mothers and infants were also observed weekly at home for one year using the psychoanalytic infant observation... more
Significant losses and separations can be either an impediment or a spur to development, depending on internal and external circu mstances. This symposium explores varying outcomes from points of view of infants and parents, citing material from a) two research studies using psychoanalytic infant observation, b) clinical research using video to track processes of change in psychotherapy with parents and u nder fives, and c) parent-infant... more
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