PREGNANT WOMEN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY MATERNAL BONDING: ASSOCIATIONS WITH MATERNAL–FETAL ATTACHMENT AND BIRTH CHOICES

Recollections of own maternal care measured by parental bonding were found to be important in the pregnant woman's construction of herself as a mother. Although these recollections were studied with regard to various variables, there is a dearth of studies associated with pregnancy and childbirth. In this cross‐sectional study, 341 pregnant women were recruited. Measures included a Sociodemographics–Obstetric History Questionnaire; the Childbirth Choices Questionnaire (H. Preis, M. Gozlan, U. Dan, & Y. Benyamini, 2018); the Parental Bonding Instrument (G. Parker, H. Tupling, & L.B. Brown, 1979); a question regarding the planned presence of the woman's mother at delivery; and the Maternal‐Fetal Attachment Scale (M.S. Cranley, 1981). Parental recollections of Care were associated with fewer natural birth choices (hence, a more “medicalized” delivery), lower maternal–fetal attachment, and a wish for the mother's mother to be present at the birth. Parental recollections of Encouragement of Behavioral Freedom in childhood were associated with more natural choices regarding childbirth. In addition, women with higher scores on the parental bonding Denial of Autonomy factor reported stronger maternal–fetal attachment. Thus, early recollections of experiences with caregivers as manifested in parental bonding may be a possible influence on the transition to motherhood, and working through possible difficulties associated with these recollections may improve adjustment to motherhood.     

Whose Eucharist? Eucharistic Identity as Historical Subject

Through the experiences of a medieval historian and the experiences which have led to her engagement with the Eucharist in the Middle Ages this paper traces some of the ways in which medieval people assumed or discarded identities through their relationships with the Eucharist. The many ways in which the image encompassing an incarnate God in a wheaten disc allowed individual and groups to assert selfhood, difference and specificity are considered through examples of liturgical, mystical and theological relationships, articulations, of the Eucharist. The centrality of Jews as affirmers of Eucharistic truth in late medieval culture through the rejection and violence attributed to them is offered as a necessary facet of the Eucharist's suggestive possibilities. Eucharist is shown as a symbol of interiority and intrinsic value, opposed to Jewish literality and misrecognition of value, ideas which created a link between talk about the Eucharist and discussion of usury. Lastly, some of the historical interests of Jewish writers in the historical links between Jews and the Eucharist are explored.