ABSTRACT
A Melbourne mother resting in hospital after the birth of her son was brought a screaming infant (Heath 1995: 4). Without looking at the child, she told the nurse the baby was not hers, and asked her to take the baby away An alarming tale of post-natal depression, or of the failure of a mother to bond with her new-born? Not at all. The mother, Glenis Dolphin, simply knew that the child was not hers. Her baby was ‘placid and easy-going’ and ‘did not cry’.
