Listening to pregnancy dreams: Towards a Jungian Inner Map of pregnancy, lactation, weaning and post-weaning

Summary 

From a Jungian perspective, there is a psychological pattern in the pregnancy, lactation, weaning and post-weaning process, which amounts to a ‘physiological initiation’ into motherhood, which is relatively unknown in current Western culture. This paper shows how this pattern in dream themes can be elucidated, forming an Inner Map of pregnancy. This map should help mothers better adjust to incipient motherhood, before the birth, and consequently help them to bond better with their babies. Building on the Inner Map, a research program is proposed into bone mineral metabolism post-weaning aimed at empirically grounding Jungian psychology.

Keywords: Pregnancy, Jungian theory/Psychology, Pregnancy dreams, Lactation, Weaning, Bone mineral metabolism, Post-weaning bone recovery phase