Infant care engages the body, a fact that affects both the infant’s development and the mother-infant relationship. This study details the subjective experience of mothers during the postpartum period regarding the availability of their body knowledge in parenting and its effect on the mother’s performance and her relationship with her baby. Using a qualitative-phenomenological methodology, we recorded the perspectives of twelve first-time mothers via semi-structured in-depth interviews as well as stimulated-recall interviews held after viewing a video recording of the mother interacting with her infant. Three themes were uncovered: 1. Situations where the mother has no access to body knowledge. 2. Situations where the mother’s body conveys an emotional language and 3. The role of observation in increasing body-awareness. The study’s findings reveal that attentiveness to body sensations and expressions shapes infant care, shapes the way that the mother regulates her emotions, and shapes her mental wellbeing during the postpartum period. The act of self-observation as she tends to her infant may increase her body-emotion awareness. The study discusses these findings in relation to previous studies while examining the learned clinical aspects.

婴儿护理会影响身体，这一事实会影响婴儿的发育以及母婴关系。这项研究详细介绍了母亲在产后时期的主观经验，涉及他们在养育子女方面所掌握的身体知识及其对母亲的表现及其与婴儿关系的影响。我们使用定性现象学方法，通过半结构化深度访谈以及观看母亲与婴儿互动的视频记录后进行的刺激回忆访谈，记录了十二位初次母亲的观点。发现了三个主题：1.母亲无法获得身体知识的情况。2.母亲的身体传达情感语言的情况； 3.观察在提高身体意识中的作用。这项研究的发现表明，对身体感觉和表情的关注会影响婴儿护理，影响母亲调节情绪的方式，并会影响产后的心理健康。当她照看婴儿时，自我观察的行为可能会增强她的身体情感意识。这项研究在检查学到的临床方面的同时，讨论了与先前研究相关的这些发现。