Definitions matter: if maternal-fetal relationships are not attachment, what are they?
Since Cranley's conceptualization in 1981, which produced a useful measure to investigate the construct, maternal-fetal relationships have most often been referred to as maternal-fetal, antenatal or prenatal "attachment". However, critical analysis of the literature suggests that this relationship is not an attachment relationship at all, as Bowlby and Ainsworth first defined it, but a multi-faceted construct guided instead by the caregiving system, the reciprocal partner to the attachment system, which evolved to provide care and protection.
Walsh
Judi
J
School of Social Work & Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK. judi.walsh@uea.ac.uk
D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000523:psychology; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033261:Maternal-Fetal Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010332:Paternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D010553:Personality Development; D011247:Pregnancy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires