ABSTRACT
Research on the effects of early parent-baby (most often mother-baby) separation has tended to focus upon the consequences for the later relationship and for the development of the infant. Comparatively little attention has been paid to parental reactions to the separation itself, still less to the great variation in the responses of individual parents and to their differing vulnerability to the adverse effects of separation. Our main concern in this chapter will be with the period of separation itself, the reactions of parents, especially mothers, during this time and some of the ways in which the distress that many feel may be reduced.
