ABSTRACT
As a child psychotherapist covering a large area outside London, I came to be involved with a special care baby unit following a conversation with the consultant paediatrician responsible for the ward. She had told me she felt the staff were under particular stress because of the nature of their work, and wondered if I could do anything to help. Apart from wanting to be of help to the staff, I had my own reasons for wanting to work on the unit I had observed that a number of children referred to the child guidance clinic in which I worked had begun life on such units, and I wanted to understand what those early experiences were like.
