The mother’s body, the role of pleasure in the mother–infant relationship, and the traumatic risk

Abstract

In this paper, I wish to talk about the process of becoming a mother, with particular attention to the role of the mother's bodily experience, during pregnancy and childbirth, in developing maternal competencies. Studies on neurophysiological mother–infant interaction allow us to focus on a series of specific bodily based processes that support their relationship in order to guarantee the establishment of a secure attachment. The experience of pregnancy and childbirth, through the body, reactivates the somatic memories of the woman, with the possibility of a re-enactment of traumatic experiences on the one hand, but also with the possibility of a transformation and an integration of these experiences through physiological, biological, psychological processes characteristic of motherhood. Neurophysiological processes related to bodily pleasure can make the difference. The literature at hand describes a post-traumatic stress disorder in women due to the conditions of giving birth, with particular attention to women with a history of sexual abuse during childhood. We should ask ourselves exactly how psychoanalysis considers this new emergent issue and how it should reconsider the role of the mother's body.

Key word:

• childbirth
• birth
• motherhood
• pleasure
• trauma
• postpartum depression
• PTSD

Notes

1 An episiotomy is a surgical incision of the perineum and posterior vagina to quickly enlarge the opening for the baby’s passage. Its routine use is no longer recommended because of consequences such as pain, incontinence, and sexual dysfunction after having given birth. Despite this, the episiotomy is still used in practice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ornella Piccini

Ornella Piccini is a psychoanalyst and a member of Italian Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy-Sándor Ferenczi.