Prenatal Broken Bonds: Trauma, Dissociation and the Calming Womb Model

Abstract

Maternal (Klaus, Kennell & Klaus, 1996) bonding during pregnancy is associated with positive infant attachment, whereas unresolved, dissociated trauma, chronic affect dysregulation, and obstetric complications during pregnancy seem to alter the bonding experience often resulting in broken bonds. The Calming Womb Family Therapy Model (CWFTM) is a comprehensive, collaborative, team-based, early intervention approach which is intended for treating mothers and their babies from conception through the first year after birth. This model builds a strong early bond between mother-child from the point of conception, which nurtures secure post birthing infant attachment. Its basis is from Murray Bowen's family approach that understands families as interconnected systems with potential for intergenerational trauma transmission, and Selma Fraiberg's psychoeducational and psychodynamic work with mothers, and infants to resolve traumatic transferences to their babies while enhancing the mothers' infant developmental knowledge. The CWFTM expands Fraiberg's work back to conception to strengthen the bond between the mother-baby dyad, and treats the baby in utero as a family participant. CWFTM uses Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to process maternal unresolved trauma, transference reactions to the baby, and coordinates services with the pregnant mother's medical teams, social supports, and involved family members. The ultimate goal of the model is to assess and treat dissociated trauma and grief of the mothers' past, facilitating strong bonds and attunement between mothers and their babies. Pregnancy is a great source of enjoyment, hope, and anticipation for most women; it may also bring on anxiety, distress, depression, trauma, and feelings of ambiguity (Talley, 2013). Parenting, maternal bonding, and biological effects on fetal development begin before birthing (Daglar & Nur, 2018; Glover & Capron, 2017). Even though pregnancy is a major phase of life for women and their families, prenatal therapeutic interventions are frequently overlooked. Prenatal early interventions support vulnerable mothers who have preexisting trauma or who may be at high risk for prenatal stress. Reducing mothers' intense fear of childbirth or Tokophobia while increasing their preparedness for labor predicts increase positive bonding and motherhood (Klabbers et al., 2016; Salmela-Aro et al., 2011). Daglar and Nur (2018) found that as prenatal bonding level increases, so does the level of postpartum

Professor Emerit : It is Time to Reject Gendered Titles for Retired Faculty

“…The number of downloads of JTD articles has grown by almost 20% in just one year, with slightly under half coming from individuals in the USA. The most downloaded articles over the past year were, "What Mindfulness can learn about Dissociation and what Dissociation can learn from Mindfulness" (Forner, 2019), followed by "Culture, trauma, and dissociation: A broadening perspective for our field" (Krüger, 2020), followed by "Prenatal broken bonds: Trauma, dissociation, and the calming wound model" (Cortizo, 2021).…”

Psychosocial family-level mediators in the intergenerational transmission of trauma: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…1 3 4 Understanding the role of psychosocial factors within the family in mediating and moderating the intergenerational transmission of trauma is critical to develop household-level psychosocial interventions that prevent transmission among high-risk families. Some psychosocial interventions have been explicitly developed to prevent the intergenerational transmission of trauma or have been evaluated for this purpose; [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] however, these interventions are heterogeneous in their theoretical and therapeutic approaches and in evidence used to inform development. 39 In addition, few interventions have been evaluated, and those that have often evaluate their impact on parenting behaviors rather than child mental health outcomes.…”