Urgent engagement in 9/11 pregnant widows and their infants: Transmission of trauma

Abstract

The potential effects of maternal trauma on mother–infant interaction remain insufficiently studied empirically. This study examined the effects of the September 11, 2001, trauma on mother–infant interaction in mothers who were pregnant and widowed on 9/11, and their infants aged 4–6 months. Split‐screen videotaped interaction was coded on a one‐second basis for infant gaze, facial affect, and vocal affect; and mother gaze, facial affect, and touch. We examined the temporal dynamics of communication: self‐contingency and interactive contingency of behavior by time‐series methods. We documented heightened maternal and infant efforts at engagement in the 9/11 (vs. control) dyads. Both partners had difficulty tolerating moments of looking away as well as moments of negative behavior patterns. Heightened efforts to maintain a positive visual engagement may be adaptive and a potential source of resilience, but these patterns may also carry risk: working too hard to make it work. A vigilant, hyper‐contingent, high‐arousal engagement was the central mode of the interpersonal transmission of the trauma to these infants, with implications for intervention.

The Other made visible: creative methods, inner figures and agents of change when working through early childhood trauma in adulthood1

“…The literature on neuroscience, infant research, and trauma theory is substantial, for example, Perry 1999; Siegal 1999; Wilkinson 2005, 2017; Schore 2009; Alvarez 2010; Panksepp & Biven, 2012; van der Kolk 2014; Sieff 2015; Howell & Itzkowitz 2016; Beebe et al 2020. This literature highlights how clinically perceptive Jung was when he wrote: ‘he puts down on paper what he has passively seen, thereby turning it into a deliberate act.…”

“…Ellen’s inability to see the world at birth most certainly disturbed the mother/infant bonding and resulted in disorganized and avoidant attachment patterns resulting from trauma and subsequent shame (Sidoli 1988; Ayers 2003; Weber 2017; Beebe et al 2020). The mismatch between mother and child meant they never saw ‘eye‐to‐eye’.…”

Preterm infant contingent communication in the neonatal intensive care unit with mothers versus fathers.

“…Further post hoc descriptive analyses are required to explicate specific behavioral predictors at L1 that contribute to any mother-infant versus father--infant group differences at t 0 identified as significant by the multilevel models. Consistent with prior literature, we used an analysis of predicted values to identify specific behavioral patterns that underlie significant group differences identified by the multilevel models (Beebe et al, 2018(Beebe et al, , 2020Searle & Gruber, 2016).…”

“…We examine the 10 highest differences in an attempt to more precisely describe the behaviors which contribute to the contingency differences between motherinfant versus father-infant dyads. In past work (Beebe et al, 2020), the top 10 differences were sufficient to describe the pattern of findings. We interpret the probability explication values as tending toward low, middle, or high values, rather than interpreting specific concrete values of the engagement scale.…”

The Dice Popper

“…Brimming with curiosity, I asked my therapist about the theory I had encountered and began to learn, bit by bit, about this new discipline. I was steered to Beatrice Beebe-the pioneering mother-infant researcher-and, poignantly, became a research assistant on her project helping the widowed mothers of 9/11 (Beebe, 2012;Beebe et al, 2020). I read more, and more still.…”