Envisioning motherhood: Mental‐state language in caregiving narratives across the perinatal period

Abstract

Nancy Suchman's work highlighted the fundamental role of maternal mentalization in maternal addiction, mental health, and caregiving challenges. In this study, we aimed to examine the role of mental-state language (MSL) as a measure of mentalization in prenatal and postnatal narratives and their sentiment in a sample of 91 primarily White mothers from the western United States, followed from the second trimester of pregnancy, through the third trimester, to 4 months postpartum. Specifically, we investigated the use of affective and cognitive MSL in prenatal narratives when mothers visualized caring for their baby and postnatal narratives when mothers compared their prenatal visualization to the current caregiving reality. Results indicated moderate consistency in MSL between the second and third trimesters, but prenatal and postnatal MSL was not significantly correlated. Across all time points, higher use of MSL was related to more positive sentiment, indicating an association between mentalization and positive caregiving representations across the perinatal period. Women used more affective than cognitive MSL in prenatal imagination of caregiving, but this pattern was reversed in their postpartum reflection. Implications on assessing parental mentalization prenatally and considering the relative dominance of affective and cognitive mentalizing are discussed while considering study limitations.

Enhancing parental reflective functioning: A special tribute to the life and work of Nancy E. Suchman, PhD

“…In the basic science section , Ruth Paris and her colleagues (2023) discuss how duration of substance misuse, trauma symptoms, and capacity for parental reflective functioning are associated with parenting stress and parenting sense of competence. Helena Rutherford and her associates (2023) examine the associations between parental reflective functioning and depression in women during pregnancy and postpartum period. Carla Stover and her collaborators (in press) consider the relationship between parental reflective functioning and quality of parent‐child interaction among fathers referred to treatment for intimate partner violence.…”

Bringing a mentalizing framework to understanding mothers with addiction: The groundbreaking work of Nancy E. Suchman

“…Two of the studies address the long‐neglected issue of pleasure directly. Rutherford and her colleagues (2023) examined the use of mental state language in women at two points during pregnancy and at 4 months postpartum. Across all time points, higher use of mental state language was associated with positive sentiment, which Rutherford and her colleagues see as an indication of the association between mentalizing and positive caregiving.…”