NCJ Number
144486
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (July-August 1993) Pages: 501-513
Date Published
1993
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A study using psychoanalytic methodology used a sample of 22 women to understand why they decided to give their babies up for adoption at birth. The women were interviewed up to three times, either after they had discovered their pregnancy too late to abort it, or at the moment of their secret delivery.
Abstract
The women ranged in age from minors to over 35; their marital and professional status also varied and several already had children. The subjects, who were all living in France at the time of the study, were originally from France, North Africa, other European countries, and Asia. Their decision to give up their baby arose from a specific set of factors including the denial of pregnancy and fantasies of violence toward the baby. These fantasies were a consequence of psychological and sexual trauma the subjects had experienced as children in negligent or incestuous families. Four of the subjects had so effectively denied their pregnancy that childbirth surprised them completely, leading them to commit neonaticide. 40 references