This article discusses the concept of "primary medical concern" (Agman et al.), including its function in facilitating an initial relationship between the mother and her still hospitalized newborn infant. It is argued that the mother's focus on the baby's clinical parameters operates as a rite of passage that leads to establishing "primary maternal preoccupation" (Winnicott). The authors argue that this is a strategic resource that allows the mother-infant dyad - helped by partners such as the father, grandparents, the infant itself and the intensive care team - to overcome tasks imposed on someone who has to establish his or her own self amidst the potentially traumatic environment of a neonatal ICU.
Prematurity; mother-infant relationship; neonatal ICU; construction of subjectivity