ABSTRACT
Birth memories appeared with fantastic embellishments clearly derived from all stages of development and from the sophistication of the adolescent, if not of the adult. In many child analyses birth play is important. In such play the material might have been derived from what has been found out by the patient about birth, through stories and direct information and observation. The normal birth is non-traumatic by virtue of its non-significance. At the birth age an infant is not ready for prolonged environmental impingement. The birth-age baby has a rudimentary knowledge of impingements which produce reaction, so that the ordinary birth process can be accepted by the infant as a further example of what has already happened; but a difficult birth goes far beyond any prenatal experience of impingement that produces reaction. In the majority of cases the birth trauma is therefore mildly important and determines a good deal of the general urge towards rebirth.
