How Childhood Relationships Affect Expectations About Motherhood

A study of 160 women in the last trimester of their first pregnancy shows a woman's relationship with her parents during early childhood has a substantial impact on her expectations about motherhood.

Women who perceived their relationship with their parents as positive and balanced anticipated few problems with separation anxiety and expected a warm and close relationship with their baby. Women who described their parental relationship as angry or filled with rejection also expressed optimism about their relationship with their future child, but expected a greater level of difficulties with separation anxiety and imagined having to set many bounders with their children. Compared to other women, those who noted rejection expected a less close and warm relationship with the child.

Regardless of how they described their early relationship with their parents, women who were goal-oriented tended to have more positive and optimistic expectations compared to other women.

Read more: What Women Think During Their First Pregnancy