ABSTRACT
Pregnancy and childbirth can rightly be considered developmental milestones for females in that they constitute a crisis in the life cycle out of which, in favorable circumstances, new psychic structures are created and mental functioning is integrated. Using the techniques of modem psychoanalytic research, the author discusses themes and unconscious associations regarding childbirth, gathered from data from work with two groups of pregnant women over a period of two years. The complexity of the female endopsychic world is emphasized. Specifically, pregnancy can facilitate a restructuring of the psychic triangle of internalized maternal and paternal objects and self in a way that has a maturational effect. The self gains new authority in relationship to these internalized objects. Existing psychoanalytic literature on childbirth is reviewed, followed by the presentation of a case of a pregnant woman that demonstrates exactly how issues of “masculine” and “feminine” identification become truly integrated in pregnancy and childbirth.
