Prenatal Bonding is a facilitated experience that creates an intense bond between mother and fetus. The bond allows the mother to be aware of the child’s needs and experiences, witness fetal development in the womb, recognize early prenatal distress, and provide immediate healing and connection. Because of this intimate awareness, mothers have a smoother and more empowered birthing experience. After birth, the well-bonded baby has a remarkable degree of self-esteem, developmental advantages, and a strong, meaningful connection with the mother.

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Prenatal Bonding begins 15–20 weeks into the pregnancy and takes place weekly in private, hour-long office visits for a total of 20–30 sessions. The Prenatal Bonding Certified Practitioner empowers the mother to connect with her baby, teaches the mother tools to manage the emotional and physical costs of pregnancy, and promotes the joy and wonder of this phase of life. Through mindfulness and other internal experiencing techniques, the Practitioner helps facilitate dialogue between mother and baby. The process honors both the womb and the baby as conscious entities with their own experiences and wisdom. Each session starts with a deep relaxation process, centering on awareness of breathing, bodily feelings, and emotions. By focusing on her awareness, the Practitioner helps the woman come into contact with more and more images or bodily feelings. These images and sensations are communication between mother and unborn child. Gradually the images become more frequent, creating a flow of information and connection between the mother and the fetus. This creates an “umbilical cord” between both souls. Mothers learn to sense their child’s needs and developmental progress.

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Prenatal Bonding is a safe, intuitive, non-invasive, and lower-cost method for mothers to acquire information about their baby while simultaneously laying the foundation for a deep, lifelong parent-child relationship.

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Prenatal Bonding originated in Hungary in the early 1990’s when Jeno Raffai, PhD, conducted psychoanalytic research. During his treatments he observed a lack of inner boundaries between the patients and their mothers in early childhood that stifled independence and created confusion. Raffai then developed Prenatal Bonding, which helped mothers to create inner boundaries and clear communication between themselves and their unborn children.

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References:

Raffai J. & Hidas Gy. (2006). The Invisible Umbilical Cord. Budapest, Hungary Schroth, G. (2010).

Prenatal Bonding (Bindungsanalyse by Raffai): An Introduction  

Republished from Prenatal Bonding, https://www.prenatalbonding.org/

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