Maternal literacy? (Part I)

The arrival of a child promotes a reconfiguration of life in several aspects, especially when we talk about the first years of the child's life, even more so the first months. The new role that comes with motherhood adds enormous complexity. It is a function that demands a great investment of affective and time, which involves not only providing physical care to a completely dependent being but also subjectively supporting it (subject for a future post), which is perhaps one of the biggest challenges and most strenuous tasks.

I believe that Taking care of a baby is a constant reading exercise , reading what he needs, at every moment. Knowing when it's time to feed him, to put him to sleep; As he grows up, when is it time to change the routine, to invert the order of things, to leave him free to play alone and just observe, to just welcome him, snuggling him in my arms. It is an incessant reading.

The point is that this reading is not a guess, a stroke of luck. It is necessary be physically and mentally available , attentive, connected, to know how to read the signals that the baby emits. In other words, doing this reading takes work, demands time, energy. Sometimes, there are clear signs, when less effort is needed from the caregiver. But there are times when the signs are subtle, discreet and only with a lot of psychic availability, it is possible to read them.

Winnicott, an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, speaks in a primary maternal concern, a very peculiar psychological state in which the mother would enter, with an extremely acute sensitivity, a state of withdrawal in relation to everything that does not concern the baby, so that she identifies herself radically with him. This allows the mother to offer the baby a context for it to be constituted and developed. According to the psychoanalyst, this state would begin at the end of pregnancy and last up to a few weeks after the birth of the baby.

Taking a certain liberty, I propose to broaden this concept, thinking about another phase of this state, which extends beyond the first few weeks of life , a state that allows the mother to read the one I referred to earlier. Perhaps you could call it "maternal concern" only, no longer primary. After all, babies grow, develop and continue to demand to be read in their needs and demands, prolonging this kind of maternal literacy.