Disturbance of Mother-and-Child Relationship - 1 |
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From the biological viewpoint, the immunological viewpoint in particular, one's own child is a stranger. A new life is born from the combination of different genes of parents, a father and a mother. The half of one's child is a stranger. Therefore under certain cases and circumstances, mother-and-child or parent-and-child relationship could be disrupted. We can call it, in general terms, the mother-infant [father-infant, parents-infant] incompatibility.
A typical example of the blood immunological mother-infant incompatibility1 is hemolytic anemia , which is caused by the incompatibility of blood groups2 of newborns.
There are many variations in biological mother-and-child relationships and various types of incompatibility. They include not only immunological incompatibility mentioned above but also mental and psychological incompatibility. In many cases such mental and psychological incompatibility between the mother and her child causes unhappy situations for the child.
For example, I would like to think about a child not blessed with his mother's affection.
Maternal Deprivation Syndrome
Half of one's fetus is a stranger for its mother, but it grows up in its mother's uterus for as long as 40 weeks thanks to the nature's complex mechanism. When it is born, a new relationship is established between the newborn and his or her mother. This is a start of the child rearing. In many cases the mother-and-child relationship should be peaceful, something like what is beautifully depicted in pictures and literature. And this relationship is based on mother's love. However, when the mother cannot love her child for some reason, her relationship with her child may lead to an unfortunate situation; the mother may not be happy because her marriage life has a problem or she is betrayed by her husband, for example. There are many cases of incompatible mother-and-child relationship; when the child cannot get enough of his mother's love, pediatricians call it maternal deprivation syndrome3. Children not blessed with mother's love, babies and infants in particular, show peculiar symptoms.
They show clear symptoms of diarrhea and their muscle strength weakens. Repetition of vomiting and bolting food is observed. They also develop sleep disorders, followed by mental and psychiatric symptoms such as autistic depression. There is no increase in height and weight; their physical size is well below normal levels. This is called deprivation dwarfism4.
When the mother-and-child relationship has such a big problem, the child must be hospitalized in some cases. Soon after a child is hospitalized, he or she starts to grow taller and gain weight. This is because the child is affectionately taken care of by nurses and doctors. When a child with an ordinary mother-and-child relationship is hospitalized, on the other hand, his or her growth in height and weight tends to slow down because the child is in an extraordinary circumstance separated from his or her mother.
1: Mother-infant incompatibility
It is a situation in which a mother and her child cannot get along well due to the difference in characters and nature.
2: Incompatibility of blood groups
There are blood types such as ABO and Rhesus factors; when incompatible blood is mixed together, there is an in vitro or in vivo response. For example, the blood cell melts or solidifies.
3: Maternal deprivation syndrome
When a mother cannot love her child and starts to abuse him or her psychologically, the child frequently shows symptoms explained in the text.
4: Deprivation dwarfism
The symptom is shown in a child suffering from deprivation syndrome with the most conspicuous feature of low height.
Kobayashi, Noboru (1981). "Haha to Ko no Ningen Kankei ga Midareru - 1"
(written in Japanese). Tokyo: Child Research Net. Retrieved Sep 8, 2005, from the http://www.crn.or.jp/LIBRARY/KOBY/MIRAI/cbs0129.html
