Preoccupation with motherhood in the first year

With the birth of a child, the mother establishes a new, unique psychological organization termed "preoccupation with motherhood." It is the psychological basis for the formation of the parental identity and the self-actualization as a parent. This change allows the mother to reorganize her previous life (desires, needs, attitudes, goals, priorities).

The topics that occupy the mother of a newborn child or dominate new motherhood include: 

1. Child growth and development - is she able to care for the child?
2. Mutual relationship - is she able to engage in an authentic emotional relationship with her child and does this engagement enable the child to develop as desired/expected?
3. Supportive environment - will the parents/partners/family know how to form/enable the necessary support system?
4. Identity reorganization - will the mother/father be able to change their own identity to enable and facilitate these functions?

Each topic consists of ideas, desires, fears, memories and motives that determine or influence maternal feelings, actions, interpretations, relationships with people around them and other forms of behavior.


Preoccupation with motherhood is not universal, nor is it innate. As a temporary psychological reorganization, it can last for months, sometimes years, and aims to provide the best matrix (base) for the new family member.  There is indisputably a psychobiological and hormonal basis for the emergence of this organization, but it seems that socio-cultural factors can play a decisive role in how this psychobiological basis will manifest itself and how the mother's role will be defined. Also, a man may be able to develop, in a special way, such a psychological organization.

In order for a mother to create an appropriate and supportive environment (nest) for the child's development, she needs to feel sufficiently supported, valued, respected, to feel that she belongs to a new group of mothers, to feel competent (skilled) for this new function and role, to be confident in her partner or other people around her.

 
Historically, traditionally, the matrix once consisted of extended family with experienced women who helped the new mother, and later the mothers of a young child. Nowadays, the structure of the supportive nest is different - the father's role is more prominent, the role of the extended family is played down.

What is triggered by pregnancy continues with the birth of a child - it awakens memories of one's own childhood, relationship with one's own mother, and sparks the desire for reorganization (maturity) of that relationship. Participation in parenting schools organized from the second trimester of pregnancy helps in achieving the best possible reorganization.