The Impact of Perinatal Depression on Child Development

In order to grow, we must accept loss and relinquishment. These psychic movements are frequently constructive and leading to maturity, but they can also be a potential source of disorganizing anguish and they can induce symptoms such as anxiety, fears, somatizations and various difficulties.The arrival of a child, from its very conception to the first months of life, is considered to be a phase of psycho-emotional development that corresponds to a new psychic structure in the mother/father. During pregnancy, the psychic functioning undergoes important modifications that impact the woman’s very identity.During this whole period psychological changes are taking place that manifest themselves by an intensification of signs of pre-existent conflicts and of behaviors, attitudes or desires specific to very early periods of development.The parenting process is all about giving up on being the daughter or the son of one’s parents, in other words about ‘’loosing’’ one’s infantile position, needs and desires and assuming a new identity, that of being oneself the parent of one’s child. This process allows us to understand the central point of the depressive problem, not only in the course of its development, but also in the context of this “clinic of parenthood.”