Mothers, Babies and Their Body Language

This book is an attempt to describe, through an observational study from pregnancy to the early months of postnatal life, the complex interactions between mother and baby. The infants the author observed showed amazing skills at engaging their mothers in conversation. Psychology so far has paid little attention to this primal psychobiological, rhythmic communication as an important factor in child development. Studies on babies' minds have long been manipulated by the perspective of adult convenience. Research and clinical literature have overlooked the relationship between the woman's "bodyself image" and the quality of interactions with her baby, which led the author to write this book. When the mother's integrated 'bodyself image' and the related self-confidence enable her to receive and contain the fears, crying, and anger of the baby, she is able to give these feelings back to the baby with a renewed light rather than reject them, thus she allows the baby to acknowledge them through a mirroring process. If this process does not take place, the baby may ignore the frightening feelings and, as opposed this being an ideal situation, she/he can become unable to monitor them in later life. This book acknowledges the impossibility of giving general guidelines to individual parents, and telling any mother how she should best look after her own baby. Instructive books often drive a mother away from her own feelings and needs. The key is for the mother to look into herself and discover and use her own resources.