Narracja matki o dziecku w okresie prenatalnym
The mother’s narration about her child in the prenatal period

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on one aspect of the mother-child relation: the mother’s narration about her child during the prenatal period. The aim has been to establish how the mother builds a story about her developing child, which elements are common to most mothers’ narratives and which variables make the narratives different. In order to answer these questions, a narrative method has been used in a study involving 32 women between the 16th and 37th weeks of pregnancy. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the gathered stories shows that the mothers-to-be attribute a meaning and intentions not only to their children’s behaviours in their wombs but also to their own notions of those behaviours, and they base their reactions on them. Furthermore, the mothers arrange their expectations and beliefs concerning their children into coherent stories, which is a vital element of entering motherhood. In this way, they familiarize hemselves with the unknown and prepare themselves for performing the new role. In the annex to the paper, there are two narratives analysed thoroughly in terms of their content and structure.

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