ABSTRACT
From the earliest of times it was believed that women were prone to developing abnormal psychological states during pregnancy and that this could influence foetal development: although it was not until the Middle Ages that the ‘doctrine of the influence of the maternal fancy (phantasia), or, … imaginatio gravidarum, or, einbildungskraft …’, was formulated.1 The belief that pregnant women subjected to traumatic visual experiences could give birth to babies with ‘deformities’ resembling the image, called the maternal impressions theory, was widely believed up until the early 20th century. This theory competed with the notion of satanic influence, whereby deformities in new-born babies were attributed to bestial or satanic paternity.2 Either hypothesis rendered the mother responsible for the deformity. These theories gradually gave way to less blameful ones with the advent of the more scientific explanations of contemporary medicine. Ballentine in 19041
wrote, in a treatise challenging the maternal impression theory, that ‘I think that there can be no doubt that prolonged or strongly marked mental states of the mother may affect the development of the fetus in her uterus.’ Little work has since been done to examine these hypothetical processes. Indeed, the whole area of mental ill-health during pregnancy has not been systematically examined. This book attempts to redress this neglect.
