Psychotherapeutic Needs of Mothers-To-Be

In a society such as ours, where resources are becoming scarce, the prudent strategies must be: a) early detection of high risk groups and b) preventive measures, thereby reducing the cost of treating established conditions.

Pregnancy offers an ideal opportunity to meet both these requirements. The readiness with which most women apply for professional ante-natal care facilitates early screening for those in need of treatment. Moreover, timely therapeutic intervention during pregnancy can modify the development of a pathological interaction, affecting not only the mother-to-be but her future child. This is particularly true of psychotherapeutic treatment during the ante-natal period. Pregnant women are ideal candidates for brief psychotherapy, being both highly motivated to change before the birth, and by virtue of their pregnancies, being uniquely in touch with their unconscious processes.

Unfortunately, their need for psychotherapeutic treatment is all too often overlooked by the professionals with whom they come into ante-natal contact, and even when detected, the facilities are rarely available for rapid and valid intervention. It is an indictment, that we have focused so much of our attention and resources on the few hours of labour and preparation for these, and given so little thought to the ongoing emotional preparation for motherhood. Indeed, we often tend to forget that the purpose of pregnancy is not merely to create a baby but to produce a mother. A mother is not born with the birth of her child -she is able to mother her newborn only if maternity has been gradually achieved by emotional work accomplished during pregnancy. Most women devote their pregnancy to cultivation and practice of their motherliness; they do so unconsciously, intuitively and creatively, drawing on their concepts of maternal qualities acquired through intimate contact with their own mothers when they were babies and their experience of being mothered and nurtured from infa