87 Early mother/ child interaction Flashcards
What are the factors in development of bonding and attachment made between baby and mother whilst in utero?
- By 22 weeks baby responding to sound especially mother
- In womb baby has preference for mother’s voice and native language
- At birth auditory pathways developed in womb enable baby to match mother’s voice with her face
- Neural pathways laid down antenatally for smell to enable baby to identify smell of mother’s breast milk
What occurs in:
• First 8 weeks of pregnancy?
• Next 30-34 weeks?
• First 8 weeks:
Formation of main physiological systems
• Next 30-34 weeks:
Growth and development of those systems
Adverse effects of maternal stress and anxiety?
- Small head circumference
- Earlier gestational age
- Lower birth weight
- Language delay
- Conduct disorder
- Autism
- Physical abnormality e.g. cleft palate
3 examples of maternal stress and anxiety
- Alcohol and drugs
- Eating disorders
- Domestic abuse
Effect of maternal alcohol or drug use?
Foetal alcohol syndrome:
• Growth impairment
• Abnormal facial features
• Problems with learning/attention, memory, problem solving, speech and hearing
Effect of maternal eating disorder?
Affects closure of neural tube
Effect of domestic abuse on foetus?
- Often starts in 3rd trimester
- Stress (cortisol) from mother restricts blood flow to fetal brain
- Child is more anxious
- Child has ADHD symptoms
What early experiences develop a child that is empathetic, trustful and has positive well being?
Caring adults that respond in warm, stimulating and caring ways when baby naturally reaches out - creates bonds
Result of impoverish, neglectful or abusive environment of baby development?
- Results in a child that doesn’t develop empathy, or learn how to regulate their emotions or develop social skills
- Increased risk of mental health problems, relationship difficulties, antisocial behaviour and aggression
Describe scenario regarding containment which is linked to Klein’s concept of projective identification?
For example:
A mother who has herself been unloved may project her feelings of unlovableness into her child and then identify with the child as unloved and unlovable
What is containment?
- Notion of another person being able to hold onto these feelings, and then give them back detoxified and bearable
- This relies on the person “doing the containing” having a certain amount of self-knowledge and the ability to know what is “mine” and what is “another’s”
Qualities of a person good at containing others is…
- Receptive
- Able to hold on to another persons difficult feelings without being overwhelmed by them themselves
- Makes calm and thoughtful attempts to understand the problem
- Can convey a feeling that what the other person is feeling is tolerable, meaningful and manageable
When a particular feeling is aroused, old neural networks automatically become activated to manage the arousal in the old way.
The process of having feelings recognised and acknowledged by another person can facilitate the development of what?
Facilitate the development of new ways of relating, and develop new pathways
What is reciprocity?
- Describes the sophisticated interactions between a baby and an adult when both are involved in the initiation, regulation and termination of the interaction
- Reciprocity applies to interactions on all relationships
What development is reciprocity key for?
Language development
- If reciprocity has not developed well in an emotional way, language acquisition is likely to be impaired
- The rhythm of sucking and stopping when feeding is the prototype of the development of turn taking
