Talking to Babies Healing With Words on A Maternity Ward

Dr. Myriam Szejer talks to newborns. For over a decade, in the maternity ward of a hospital outside Paris, Dr. Szejer has been conducting her practice with considerable success and acclaim. Called in by hospital staff when a baby or its parents are suffering, she uses the psychoanalytic techniques of careful listening and talking to reach suffering newborns and reverse their conditions. Talking to Babies is the story of her important work. Szejer believes babies need words as much as they need nourishment to thrive. By words she means that infants need to be talked to about the specific situations and histories into which they are thrown. Problematic aspects of their histories (such as the death of a twin sibling or a parent"s depression) need to be spoken about out loud--in the presence of their mothers and fathers if at all possible. Such speech helps everyone--newborn and parents--to place themselves in the altered world created by the baby"s birth. When such words are not present, physical symptoms and illness may emerge. Talking to Babies is the first book to show how the "talking cure" can help suffering infants and their parents. Groundbreaking and brilliant, it should find a welcoming audience among psychologists, medical personnel, and others interested in the healing powers of language.Szejer, Myriam is the author of 'Talking to Babies Healing With Words on A Maternity Ward' with ISBN 9780807021149 and ISBN 0807021148.