To know or not to know: some observations on women's reactions to the availability of prenatal knowledge of their babies' sex

The author studied reactions to the availability of prenatal information concerning the sex of the fetus, with the specific aim of differentiating between women: those who chose to know the sex of their babies prenatally (Group A) and those who did not (Group B). Two psychoanalytically informed interviews were conducted by the author with each subject, one before amniocentesis results were known, and one after. The attitude concerning the wish to know the sex or not proved enduring and as such bore a stable relation to the pregnancy. The differing cognitive approach to incorporating the data made available by prenatal technology was accompanied by differing cathexes: Group A women invested more in the fetus as a real object, whereas Group B women invested more in the state of being pregnant. The findings are related to the psychoanalytic literature on pregnancy; special emphasis is placed on the mourning of the lost fantasy of the sex-preferred child as well as the loss of the fantasy of the child of sex opposite to the one determined through amniocentesis. Possible consequences regarding postpartum depression are discussed.