The Use of Rituals in Grieving for a Miscarriage or Stillbirth

Abstract

Preparation for their changing roles in family and society, as well as readying their intimate space for the arrival of an infant, totally engage expectant parents. Miscarriage or stillbirth may bring on a grief storm that strips away many tender roots and branches of new life in the community that the parents have been nurturing. Creation and participation in a grief ritual can bring the grieving parents to a healing resolution. This article describes the healing efficacy of ritual, its elements, and how a compassionate therapist can create one in collaboration with grieving clients.     

Infants' perception of directional alignment of texture elements on a spherical surface

By appropriately compressing texture elements on a circular surface, one can evoke the impression of being confronted with the depiction of a spherical object in the picture plane. According to Todd and Akerstrom (1987), the 3D perception of such an object can be eliminated if the optical elements are not sufficiently elongated or if they are not aligned with one another. In the current investigation, 4‐month‐old infants were tested for their ability to react to a disruption of the directional alignment variable. They were habituated to either a spherical surface or a surface the spatial layout of which was destroyed by reorienting the texture elements, and were afterwards tested with a further ellipsoid object and with a further flat surface. Data analysis revealed that the female infants, but not the male participants, preferred the novel posthabituation display, that is, the test stimulus which included a change in the orientational alignment of texture elements. These findings are discussed within the context of development of sensitivity to pictorial depth cues. It is possible that infants as young as 4 months of age respond to manipulations of the directional alignment factor per se, while older infants are capable of using this factor as a cue for 3D object shape. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.     

Pabiku and Ga Ti Ga: Two Mechanisms Infants Use to Learn About the World

Some of the things that adults learn about language, and about the world, are very specific, whereas others are more abstract or rulelike. This article reviews evidence showing that infants, too, can very rapidly acquire both specific and abstract information, and considers the mechanisms that infants might use in doing so.     

To reach or not to reach? Perception of body effectivities by young infants

Two experiments compared 6‐month‐old infants as they reach for an object. All were proficient reachers but with different levels of sitting ability. The object was presented at various distances, within and beyond reach of the infant. In the first experiment, the scaling of perceived reachability in infants with different postural abilities (i.e. non‐sitter, near‐sitter, and sitter infants) was explored. The second experiment investigated the role of proprioception in the scaling of perceived reachability by non‐sitter and sitter infants. In general, results suggest that perceived reachability is calibrated in relation to the degree of postural control achieved by the infant. Infants demonstrate a sense of their own situation in the environment as well as a sense of their own body effectivities. Both determine the execution, or non‐execution, of reaching for a distal object by young infants. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal representation and care of infant sleep

Maternal reports about infant sleep care and ideas about the causes of awakening were obtained from telephone interviews with 104 middle class primiparae when their infants were 1 month and 1 year old. These reports were compared with their expectations about infant sleep before the birth of their child. It was found that most of the mothers were willing to ‘help’ their infants fall asleep, with 19 different kinds of techniques being spontaneously mentioned. Most of the techniques involved physical contact. The changes in technique from before birth to the end of the first year of life mainly concerned a decrease in the use of techniques involving holding the infant in the arms. From 1 month to 1 year, there was a decrease in rocking techniques, while at 1 year the use of a (bottle) feeding technique and taking the child into the parents' bed became apparent. The reasons mothers gave for infant awakenings varied from 1 month to 1 year. At 1 year, the most frequent reason was that the infant has ‘sufficient sleep’. Mothers' representations before the infant birth did not overlap with representations and reports of sleep handling after birth. Mothers were willing to apply and use a great variety of caring techniques that they perceived to be adjusted to the individual needs of their child. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.