Special Care Babies and their Developing Relationships. By Anne McFadyen London: Pp.  194.  Routledge.

There has been very little literature on premature babies of very low birth-weight from a psychological perspective. This book is an attempt to fill that gap, and is a development of some detailed and very interesting research work carried out by Anne McFadyen whilst training as a Child & Adolescent psychiatrist at the Tavistock Clinic. In particular, McFadyen sets out to explore the earliest relationships as they emerge within the special-care baby unit, using the psychoanalytic infant-observation method as her main research tool, together with an examination of mothers’ narratives.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I provides a theoretical overview. The writer discusses parent-child relationships from different perspectives, bringing together psychoanalysis, ethology and child-development theory and research. She then tries to make links between these theoretical ideas and aspects of special-care babies which deserve closer attention. While many books have been devoted to the psychological aspects of neonatal intensive care, McFadyen makes the point that most reports end up talking about the adults involved, instead of trying to take account of the neonate's experience and unique contribution to the developing relationship from the very beginning of life. She reminds us (and later on in the book shows us) how difficult it is to think about and empathise with a special-care baby — even more so for the professionals than for the parents. In a busy special-care baby unit, the professionals involved do not have the time to spend even a few minutes really tuning in to what any particular baby is feeling:

How can any of us begin to put ourselves in the place of these babies, some of whom are fragile, scraggy-looking creatures who may be naked and blindfolded, who are connected to tubes and wires to keep them alive, and who cannot be cuddled or loved in the same way as ordinary babies?

McFadyen describes how the baby's developing relationship with the pers