Prologue

This issue of psychoanalytic inquiry brings together nine papers filled with clinical and theoretical data which we hope will enrich the psychoanalytic literature on the topic of pregnancy. These papers represent a timely contribution because today's woman is able to choose whether or not she will become pregnant, see her pregnancy to term, and nurture her child.

Pregnancy is a time of change, a time when women can begin to understand themselves as they are, as they were, and as they are becoming. This process of review and recapitulation parallels the physiological changes of pregnancy and has been termed psychological gestation by two of the co-editors of this issue. In our paper we offer the thesis that when there is a failure of psychological gestation, the mother and the infant are at risk for disturbances of attachment.

A theme central to all the papers contained here is that the experience of pregnancy is laden with the burden of the past. In case after case, pregenital issues especially appear to be reworked and resolved during the gestation period. What is remarkable is the consistency with which analysts across nations recognized the important role of the early mother-daughter/father-daughter relationships in negotiating the tasks of pregnancy, the “psychological gestation” that must be completed to allow mother-infant attachment to proceed.

We are fortunate to be able to publish two contributions by Malkah Notman and Eva Lester, both of whom have had an enduring interest in the topic of pregnancy and parenthood. One