The Impact of weaning on infants and mothers

Becoming a mother for the first time can profoundly affect a woman's sense of who she is. To manage this transition while dealing with the vulnerability of a tiny baby requires support from partner, family and wider community. What happens for mothers rearing their babies in very different countries or environments from those in which they were themselves brought up?

This paper presents findings from a research project studying changes in women's identities in becoming parents for the first time in an inner city borough characterised by ethnic diversity, deprivation and rapid social change. Twenty first time mothers were each interviewed in depth before the baby' s birth and during and at the end of the first year. Six of these mothers and babies were also observed weekly using psychoanalytic infant observation for one year. While interviews provided information about mothers ' conscious reflections on their experience, observations gave insight into the emotional impact of babies ' demands and changing needs on organising parents, affecting what is required of them emotionally, psychologically and practically.

The paper focuses on weaning as a significant transition for babies and mothers, affected by social expectations, financial considerations and emotional factors. The paper asks: how do babies react to, negotiate, or work through this change and what is the impact on parents? What shifts are involved in moving through physical dependence to psychological dependence? How might a baby' s grasp of this be manifest in behaviour, in particular, in the regulation of intimacy?

After outlining findings from the whole study, two contrasting examples are presented: an African mother and baby, relatively isolated, with her husband, from family and community, and a professional white mother, economically comfortable but lacking immediate support. The former family drew on memories, traditions and baby-recipes from the home country to compensate for a break in continuity; the latter mother relied heavily on telephone contact with her mother for advice over feeding. Despite differences, each example highlights how the psychological work involved in weaning by both infant and mother promoted the infants' being proactive in developing communication, deepening attachment to the mother. The mother ' s awareness of both a change in her relation to her baby and in her connectedness contributed to her sense of identity as a mother.