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Merleau-Ponty And The Affective Maternal-Foetal Relation, Jane M. Lymer

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The belief that the emotional state of the mother can impact upon her child’s development during pregnancy is long held and cross cultural. Yet within many developed nations the possibility of a maternal-foetal relation or communication has been poorly understood and not often researched. Recently however it has been found that many maternal affective states such as depression, stress, and anxiety have negative outcomes for foetal development and flourishing.

Consequently, within the contemporary literature there has been the beginning of a shift in thinking, and in some instances a call for more research, into the nature of this suspected maternal-foetal …