ABSTRACT
There is in the symptomatology an insistence on the interaction of psyche and soma, this being maintained as a defence against the threat of a loss of psyche-somatic union, or against a form of depersonalisation. Mastitis represents the tip of the iceberg of a conflict between the mother’s will to breastfeed and her inability to cope with the overwhelming feelings aroused by it. When the mother lets go rather than resists labour and birth, breathing unfolds smoothly as a sign of her psychosomatic connection to her baby. A mother’s attitude to her body and self during pregnancy, labour, and birth will not only contribute to shaping the quality of her holding, and massaging, but also of how she talks to her baby and of every moment of contact. Parent’s bodies, especially the mother’s, act as a regulator of the baby’s breathing, body temperature, and heart rate, particularly with premature and underweight babies.
