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This chapter is about the place of the pregnant maternal body in the developing body image of the daughter. Adult examples from two cases are offered to demonstrate its lingering effects on the women's perceptions of their shapes, sizes, abdomens, breasts, and buttocks. Attention is drawn to its neglect in our formulations. It is suggested that the whole exterior of the body of the female is as important to her as the outer and inner genitals, and makes a vital contribution to the final shape of her gender role identity.
It is surprising that the body of the pregnant mother is so neglected in our literature about unconscious fantasies that inform the body image of her daughter. The vast belly, the bounteous breasts, the swayback posture, all create an arresting new outline for the usual form of the grown woman. This symbol of fertile maternity is a major conscious and social focus of attention for adults and children of both sexes. It requires hard work to ignore a pregnant woman in the environment. The body outline captures in a moment's glance the epitome of female biological prowess, all the more so when seen nude. The erect phallus of the grown man is a familiar, visible, similar, nude icon of biological power, promise, and destiny. This latter symbol has been granted much more focus in the minds of both female and male analysands as reported in our literature and in our clinical and developmental theory, particularly about gender differentiation. This paper will attempt to address several questions. Why is the topic of the pregnant body per se virtually
absent from most written accounts about patients’ preoccupations as they lie on the couch? What can this phenomenon mean, given the frequency of the occurrence in many people's early childhood? If the topic has been unrecognized or glossed over, does it manifest itself in unrecognized ways? If encountered, how does it yield to interpretation? And is it indeed important in the formation of a daughter's body ima