| The symbiotic relationship of a mother and her newborn provides a milieu rich in somatic experiences. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of the role of a mother's embodied experiences while in dyadic interaction with her infant is currently lacking in the literature. This study investigates what somatic experiences are occurring for mothers and how mothers make meaning of these experiences. Five primiparous mothers, ranging in age from 18 to 35-years-old, with infants from 3 to 12 months, were videotaped for 15 minutes as they put their infants to sleep. Mothers reviewed the videotape and participated in 2 semistructured interviews exploring their related somatic experiences. Using principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the findings suggested that mothers interpret and value somatic cues within the context of their unique parenting philosophies, which are shaped by internal and external influences in a mother's environment, such as from pressure to follow cultural and family tradition, religious beliefs, and rules of social etiquette. This study proposes that elements of attachment, such as a mother's capacity for somatic empathy and for tracking somatic cues, can be better understood within the framework of a systems theory. Furthermore, current literature on changes that occur in the mother's brain during the prenatal and postnatal stages are in alignment with the findings of this study and suggest the need for a maternal development model that complements current infant development models and the evolving role of the mother. Results also highlight a need for additional studies on mothers' implicit, nonverbal, and gestural communication, as well as for further discourse from mothers' about their embodied experiences as mothers. |
