A study of the research on postpartum mother-infant bonding shows that results from poorly constructed research programs were
published in major journals and became a part of hospital policy because the bonding concept was politically useful in the
struggle between advocates of natural childbirth and managers of the medical model of birth. The concept was also uncritically
accepted because it was consistent with a longstanding ideology of motherhood that sees women as the prime architects of their
children’s personalities.
Key words Attachment - Bonding - Child care - History and sociology of medicine - Maternal/child health - Women’s studies
Diane Eyer earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently writing a book
on the ways in which the concepts of bonding and attachment have affected our understanding of appropriate early childcare.