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In this book Negri describes nearly twenty years of work with newborn babies, their parents and nurses in the intensive care unit in Treviglio-Caravaggio Hospital, Bergamo, Italy. During this time she has combined her background as a neuropsychiatrist with the technique of infant observation, initially with the aim of early recognition of cerebral palsy in these infants, but then, following the recognition of ‘alarm signals’ shown by them, (for example, gaze aversion, pretending to sleep, absence of smiling and phobias), with the aim of preventing the psychopathology which results in poor adjustment, behaviour problems and learning difficulties so often associated with children who have been born prematurely.
Infant observation, initiated by Esther Bick and developed by, amongst others, Martha Harris, to whom this book is dedicated, is part of the training of all child psychotherapists in the U.K. Recently it has been adapted for use in research into infant development - with infants in utero (see : From Fetus to Child, 1992),