The Infant's Mother: Facilitating an Experience of Infant-Directed Singing with the Mother in Mind

Abstract

Infants admitted to the acute care context (within Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units) are subject to continuous and intensive medical, nursing and allied health care. Within this context, the role of the mother is altered and parent-infant attachment is potentially compromised. This article focuses on the application of infant-directed singing (improvised vocalising in response to the infant's cues) as a means of supporting the mother's desire to interact with her infant. Specifically, it is suggested that Bowlby's four interrelated therapeutic tasks provide the therapist with a framework for supporting the mother in infant-directed singing and that, in turn, this impacts upon the infant's experience of its environment (understood via Winnicott's description of the ‘facilitating environment’ and the functions of the ‘good-enough mother’). As such, the therapist provides ‘reliable’ and ‘helpful’ care to the mother, who in turn provides a similar quality of care to her infant. A theoretical understanding of this process underlines the significance of the mirror-role in both parent-infant interaction and therapeutic process.