Problems of Early Infancy: Transactions of the First Conference, March 3–4, 1947, New York. Edited by Milton J. E. Senn. (Publication of Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. Pp. 70. Price 75 cents.)

This is a report of informal discussions on the earliest relationships of parents to offspring, in which psychiatrists, pediatricians, obstetricians, anthropologists and social workers took part.

There was general agreement on the great importance of the earliest mother-child relationship for the source of later illness, and on its being a common experience for both mother and baby to be unhappy under conditions prevailing in most hospitals. It was considered desirable that the nursing couple should be continuously together, with nursing by the mother encouraged and much less emphasis on rigid schedules, etc.

The importance of pre-natal pediatric interviews was stressed, in view of the fact that the pregnant woman is often more apprehensive about her role as mother than her ability to deliver a viable infant. It was claimed that the incidence of breast feeding could be increased as a result of these interviews.

Hope was expressed that the movement towards the better understanding of the earliest mother-child relationship would attract more humanistic young doctors into obstetrics, since it was found that obstetricians are usually psychologically reactionary and less interested in people than other specialists.