The story before the story: developments in pre-Infant observation

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to contribute to reflections on teaching of Infant Observation, focusing on its initial phase including meeting with parents-to-be. Through a brief exploration of the experience of our infant observation students, we attempt to highlight the importance of the preliminary meetings to the observational experience as a whole. Indeed, the first meetings which occur at the end of the pregnancy can be a very valuable for the observer. The meetings sometimes enable us to understand elements of the emotional environment which has developed during pregnancy and mark it out as a unique experience. Observing from the very first encounter adds a part of the baby’s story which begins in foetal life. We suggest that preliminary meetings represent ‘pre-infant observations’ which are part of the student’s experience of infant observation and can often reveal something which makes sense in the baby’s behaviour and reactions postnatally.