| Abstrakt: |
I have been working with issues of adoption, trauma and neglect for over 35 years and a lot has changed in that time. One of the biggest changes has been the realisation that life before birth can have a profound effect on the developing brain and nervous system and therefore impact postnatal life dramatically. I am ashamed to admit that, when I began working with parents and children adopted from care, we rarely tried to find out about the prenatal life of the adopted child. As a result, we sometimes placed inappropriate responsibility on parents, and did not take seriously the profound effects of, for example, high levels of alcohol and drug use in pregnancy, or of domestic violence. We know so much more about these things now.s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
