Pregnancy and motherhood: The feminine podium of generating healthy object-relations

Pages: 1087-1092
Nilanjana Sanyal and Manisha Das Gupta (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)

Pregnancy and motherhood are important phases in the lives of both parents, in their relationship and the relationship with their baby. The mother appears to be the central figure in the infant’s emotional-relationship based life and mothering seems to be the medium of absorbing experiences of internal and external objects. Mothering forms the pedestal of object-relations of the infant. In fact, mother-child interaction and inter-relations strongly hold ground to develop a sense of sound subject-object relations. Mental health of mothers thus is of immense importance in installing healthy reality relations of their children. The present paper deals with a discourse on “motherhood constellation” in the life-growth thematic context. The motherhood trilogy discusses how the self-identity of a woman attains a transition in the canvas of pregnancy. Primary mental representations of the mother enable her to identify with the experiences of her infant by means of reflection leading to subtle adjustments in relation to her handling of her baby and mature subject-object relations.