THE PITFALLS OF CO-CONSTRUCTING FATHER-MOTHER-BABY BONDS AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF PATERNAL ABSENCE AND REUNION: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

This article presents the results of research on the psychological processes involved in becoming a mother, conducted in collaboration with a University Hospital Center in France. This research focuses on primiparous women from a general population, free of psychological and obstetric disorders, living with the father of the child in a context of a desired pregnancy. The interest of researching a non-consulting population allows for the understanding of the reality of pregnancy experience and postpartum psychological processes in primiparous women who, at first glance, are devoid of difficulties. In this article, we hypothesize that the psychological processes of "becoming a mother" are closely linked to the challenges of triadicity, thus including the real and fantasized presence of the father in the maternal psyche. Based on a concrete case of the father's long absence (for professional reasons) from the pregnant mother, we will discuss how the intersubjective and intrapsychic challenges of "becoming a mother" present and materialize. We will present how this longitudinal clinical case is indicative of these challenges of triadicity around the real presence of the father and his implications in dyadic construction. We will discuss the challenges of circularities between the poles of maternal, paternal, and family intersubjectivity.