Mother-Infant Bonding: A Scientific Fiction Book

In the 1960s and 1970s two paediatricians published a series of articles and books arguing that mothers and their infants must be physically close immediately after birth in order for their future relationship to develop properly. In spite of the fact that the research findings on boding have now been dismissed by most of the scientific community, women are still told that the need to bond is a reason not to go back to work and social workers are taught that bonding is important in preventing child abuse, delinquency and school problems. In this book, Diane Eyer traces the history of the bonding myth and explains its continuing popularity despite its demonstrated lack of validity. She also shows how it reflects a tendency in society to accept "scientific" research without question - and without awareness that it can be distorted by professional agendas and public demands. Eyer argues that the concept of bonding was developed at a time when hospitals were losing their appeal for many women who wanted to deliver their babies in birthing centres or at home. Hospitals seized on the bonding idea as a way to make their services more attractive to pregnant women and to reassert medical authority over the birthing process by regulating the bonding procedure. The story of bonding, says Eyer, is one example of the way that the scientific and medical communities have deluded women (and themselves) into accepting dicta based on fiction and not fact.Read More