Mother-infant Bonding

Book excerpt: Guilt abounds among women who are unable, for whatever reason - illness of mother or child, premature birth, adoption - to experience the required period of bonding with their babies. In this absorbing book, Diane E. Eyer traces the history of the bonding myth and explains its continuing popularity despite its demonstrated lack of validity. Most important, she shows how it reflects a disturbing tendency in our society to accept "scientific" research without question - and without awareness that it can be distorted by professional agendas and public demands. Eyer argues that the concept of bonding was developed at a time then hospitals were losing their appeal for many women who wanted to deliver their babies in birthing centers or at home. Hospitals seized on the bonding idea as a way to make their services more attractive to pregnant women and to reassert medical authority over the birthing process by regulating the bonding procedure