> 2.      Any psychologists out there that can address for me how ANY
mental
> health professional could think that a child is unattached to the
mother
at
> birth?
More of the same. People are afraid to talk about attachment. I think
that, even more than the problems that might be attributed to adoption,
people are afraid of making judgments about mothers who choose early,
frequent, long separations from their babies. And, again, I think *we*
should be afraid of saying too much about this to the mothers with whom
we work, not knowing their stories and situations. (There are lots of
reasons that an abused mother might choose to have her child spend some
time in a positive, stimulating, *safe* environment for several hours
during the day, for instance, just as that mother might choose not to
co-sleep.)
One of the things I like about good research is that we can make general
statements to provide information: "Studies show that..." This is
helpful in group environments, and are less likely to alienate mothers
who don't share our particular life-style or philosophy.
By the way, your collective wisdom on attachment parenting was very
helpful to me, and, I hope, the mother with whom I am sharing it.
Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, PhD, IBCLC, Cert. Trans. (Canada) -- the last one
being irrelevant to this particular discussion.

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