ABSTRACT
The psychological preparation, unconscious as well as conscious, is closely interlocked with the physical stages of a woman's pregnancy. The work of pregnancy can be seen as three separate tasks, each associated with a stage in the physical development of the fetus. In the first stage, the parents adjust to the "news" of pregnancy, which is accompanied by changes in the mother's body, but not yet by evidence of the actual existence of the fetus. In the second stage, the parents begin to recognize the fetus as a being who will eventually be separate from the mother. Finally, in the third and final stage, the parents begin to experience the coming child as an individual and the fetus contributes to its own individuation by distinctive motions, rhythms, and levels of activity. During the forty weeks of pregnancy, the growth of the fetus is paralleled by a progressive development in the mother's image of the baby.
