Perinatal marital anticipation on birth of a first child

Résumé 0

For the couple, becoming parents represents a metamorphosis of the marital bond involving an intrapsychic crisis in each of the partners. The author studied the reorganisation of that bond at work, as also the quality of parenting investment from the fourth month of pregnancy to the first three months of the child’s life. She emphasises the emergence of a perinatal marital anticipation defined as the capacity of the spouses, during pregnancy, to apprehend the process of intersubjective crisis inherent to the transformations to come in their relationship. Perinatal conjugal anticipation underlines the existence of a form of representation of early triadification, which can be considered as an indicator of the quality of parental investment and a favourable development of conjugal dynamics.